


Destruction (DireWolves MC #3) (18+ Only)

by queenhoneebee



Series: Wattpad Original Stories [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Bikers, Boxers, F/M, Forbidden Love, Human Trafficking, Motorcycles, Multi, NSFW, Romance, Sex Trafficking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:47:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 34
Words: 78,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28708404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenhoneebee/pseuds/queenhoneebee
Summary: Was deleted off Wattpad. I'm looking into self-publishing.Before Temptation and Addiction, promising young future MC President, Lucas Knight, had to prove his worth to his father. But will he sacrifice the girl for the title?
Series: Wattpad Original Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104437





	1. Prologue: The King

**PROLOGUE: THE KING**

**Lucas**

_“Dude, just fucking run!”_

I took off down the corridor. The sides of my robe were waving in the wind as I charged down the empty hall.

My breath was huffing from my lips as I panted. I could run, but I wasn’t a sprinter. I could hear shouts and the thundering of footsteps behind me.

The cops had busted up the place, and as the talent, I’d been shouldered of there quick smart. I didn’t really know how it had happened. I knew that I had just walked into the ring and my opponent had shredded his robe as his name was called to hype up the crowd.

I always kept my head down before it was my turn, but then everything went to shit before I was introduced, and suddenly I’d found myself high tailing it out of there.

Underground fighting was illegal, and I knew that, but it was abetter release than just going to a regular gym. Jax always told me that I should just go for a ride to calm down, but there were just some things that riding a motorcycle didn’t give you.

Sure, the thunder of wind in your ears was the same roar that I heard when I laid punch after punch, but, fighting gave me more mobility. I wasn’t limited to the seat of a bike, instead I could use every limb, bone, and muscle in my body to release the electrically charged thoughts in my head.

I was always told to be the responsible one, the enforcer, among so many other things. I was looked to for leadership, because everyone expected me to take my dad’s place as Club President when he retired.

It was something I’d wanted my entire life; something I’d worked towards for years. And, my father’s ease and dismissal for my effort was what usually pushed me over the edge. He didn’t think I was ready, but he was wrong.

I was the same age now as he was when he started our club.

Twenty-three.

My fighting was my liberation from my responsibility, and my success in the ring was just one more thing that I hoped would prove to my father that I was ready and worthy to take his place.

I placed two hands on a door that came my way and practically ran through it like a bull runs through a red flag. I heard the clang as the steel smacked against the tin frame of the run-down building that my fight was being held in tonight.

I knew my bike was sheltered behind a bar across the road, and I had a spare change of clothes in one of my compartments, so I sprinted in that general direction. There wasn’t anyone around, and I didn’t really care about modesty, so I reefed my robe off and shoved on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

I eyed the bar and snuck in the back door. The inside was loud, but I could see through their front windows that two cops were making their way over with steely expressions. I quickly swiped a half drunk beer from a table near me while the guy wasn’t looking, and proceeded to sit myself at the bar with my head down.

The bartender gave me one curt nod. He recognised me; it wasn’t hard, you sort of couldn’t go unnoticed in my small town without knowing the future club president.

My ear piqued as I heard the two cops come inside. They marched up to the bar to ask questions of the bar tender.

“We need to speak with anyone who has entered this establishment in the last twenty minutes,” the first one said. He was short and had acne.

“It’s important that you comply with our orders,” the other one added. She was tall and had red hair. We had fucked once. I was in high school and she’d been readily available club pussy. Despite her having been a few years my senior, she had chased after me for weeks, apparently wanting to know how good I was in the sack. Probably for bragging rights like every other chick I’d been with.

I was surprised to find that she’d become a cop. I was even more surprised to find that she hadn’t ratted on the club. Surely she’d seen all the shit that went down while she’d been a house mouse. Then again, maybe he hadn’t lifted her lips from the steady stream of cock around the place long enough to take much notice of the ins and outs of our whole operation.

I found my eyes trailing down her legs slightly. I remembered she liked to cinch those things around your head if you went down on her. She had a tight grip. I laughed inwardly to myself at the image.

God, it had been a long time since I’d been with anyone. I’d been too focused on the club and my fighting to really engage with anyone lately.

“I’m sorry,” the bartender replied, eyeing me swiftly from his peripherals before turning back to the police. I don’t think they noticed his sideways glance. “Everyone in here has been in since they clocked off. We don’t get many walk-ins besides yourselves,” he said, “Most folks around here are just after-work regulars.”

The two cops didn’t seem convinced and so instead surveyed the room for anyone who might look suspicious as if they’d just come from an illegal underground fighting ring. Out of everyone here, I was the only person that they could pin it on. I’m pretty sure my shirt was on backwards, but good thing you couldn’t tell because it was plain black tee.

I caught the redhead’s eyes and I gave her a smirk and a curt nod as I eyed her up and down. She blushed slightly, as if caught off guard at seeing me there. Then she averted her eyes and turned back to thank and apologise to the bartender before she practically dragged her partner from the bar.

I felt my back pocket vibrate when they’d left and pulled it out.

**Jax arrested for gambling on the fight. Everyone else scrambled and was able to get out in time. –Juice**

I sighed, running a hand over my eyes.

_Fuck!_

Juice was one of my best friends from high school, and while he wasn’t in the club like Jax was, he usually hung out with us there anyway. I needed to get out of here. If Jax had really been arrested, then it was my responsibility to get his charges dropped.

He could do jailtime for this shit and it was my fault. I mean, it was me that he was betting on afterall. I cursed, getting up from my chair.

Of course, Jax was the dumbass who got himself duped. The bookie was probably undercover. I rolled my eyes at the thought. I gave the bartender a mock salute as a thanks and slid him two hundred-dollar bills despite the fact I’d never ordered anything.

He nodded at me in thanks and just continued polishing his glass.

.

**And we’re back in action! Who’s ready?? Jk none of you are >;)**


	2. Prologue: The Queen

**PROLOGUE: THE QUEEN**

**Lauren**

_Blood pounding._

_Heavy breathing._

_In._

_Out._

_In._

_Out._

_It was like a constant thunder in my ears. Like the rushing of a waterfall. Like a jet taking off or a rocket breaking the sound barrier._

_What did mother used to say? Count to ten; breathe in on the odds, out on the evens._

One _. Breathe in. Hold it._

_My heartbeat was in my ears as I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them._

Two _. Breathe out. Let it go. Let your muscles relax._

_I bent my head down, hiding as I heard a crash from somewhere near me. My eyes shot open and my head sprang up._

Three _. Breathe in. Hold it. No, don’t let it go too quickly…_

_All I could see was darkness. My surroundings felt like one giant shadow. My chest heaved as I felt myself start to hyperventilate._

Four _. Breathe out. Let it go. Please, try and relax._

_Somebody screamed somewhere in front of me._

Five _. Breathe in. Through the nose. Hold it in._

_It was a child. A little girl. A voicebox so innocent that a scream like that shouldn’t filter through those lips._

Six _. Breathe out. Through the mouth. Slowly._

_My hands crept up to my ears to block them as another scream sounded. My head was pounding._

Seven _. Breathe in. Through the nose._

_You need to hold it in. You need to._

Eight _. Breathe out. Slowly._

_I wanted mother._

Nine _. Breathe in. Last one. Make it count._

_My chest felt like a cage. My ribs were the iron bars and my pounding heart was the prisoner, just begging to break free._

_Somebody break me free!_

_Let me out. Let me out. Let me out!_

_Let_ it _out._

Ten _. Breathe out. Before you pass out._

_Out. Out, like a light. Like the lights on board wherever we were._

_We? Or just me?_

_Are the screams real or are they me? Are they just the voices in my head begging to break free?_

_Or are we all stuck here?_

_Tears streamed down my cheeks as I dipped my head and hugged myself ever tighter, closer._

_It was me. Just me._

_My head hurts… I want mother… Please let me out._

_My chest hurts._

_I can hear something._

_Someone._

_Please, don’t let it be_ them _. Him…_

_Someone… please… just let me out…_

**…**


	3. 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

**Two Months Later**

**Lucas**

Hit. One, two. Right, left, right. Up, up, down, right, right, left, kick.

I huffed out strategically timed breaths as I worked with my trainer, Reggie.

I could feel lines of sweat dripping between my shoulder blades as I worked. My muscles were tight as he pushed me to new limits just to try and make me improve. What can I say? I strived for perfection with this shit, it was the only way to get certain people to notice.

Plus, if I didn’t put this much effort in… well, let’s just say I was number one for a damn reason.

I grit my teeth and let myself grunt with exertion as I planted my feet. My eyes grew harder as I put all of my strength into my final punch.

I grinned with triumph when it sent Reggie onto his ass. He glared at me as he pushed my training pads off him and he did a back press up to get back on his feet.

“Why can’t you show me that shit in the ring?” he demanded. I rolled my eyes, shrugging as I leant back on the ropes. I reached down to grab my water before I uncapped it and poured it all over my face, catching some of it in my mouth.

I hadn’t realised how thirsty I’d become.

I heard a slow clap from somewhere behind me, paired with an impressed whistle and I turned around. My eyes landed on Juice, who was casually walking towards me. I smirked at my friend and held up my drink, gesturing a greeting.

The man grinned before he pulled himself up through a gap in the ropes. Reggie took it upon himself to vacate the area for a moment.

“Lookin’ better, man,” he said. I nodded, taking another gulp from my drink. “But, you’re still twisting slightly on your left hook. I could see it from over there which means that your opponent will see it during a fight.”

I rolled my eyes at him, shaking my head.

“You’re crazy. I’m not twisting shit.”

Juice smirked at me. “You sure about that?” He raised his hands and got into a fighting stance.

I narrowed my eyes at him before I capped my water bottle and dropped it into my corner. Then I moved towards my friend and got into my stance.

We circled for a moment before I made a move. I was an offensive fighter, not defensive, which meant I usually went for the first strike. Juice knew that about me. I threw in a new combination that I’d learnt over the past few days and that Juice hadn’t seen from me yet.

I wanted to catch him off guard. But then, when I went to land my left hook, Juice grinned and easily blocked it before planting a kick to my abdomen and sending me sprawling.

I hacked for breath as he winded me before I rolled over and pressed myself up. I heaved as I tried to catch my breath as Juice stood and smirked at me.

“Told you. You’re twisting and it’s leaving an opening for a parry like that. One too many of those and you’re out,” he said. “You might wanna work on that or it might become your tell.” With that, he chuckled to himself and stepped under the ropes, leaving room for Reggie to step back in.

I grunted, glaring at Reggie as he rose an eyebrow at me. He was hiding a smirk on his lips and I snarled.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded. Reggie shrugged at me and I glared.

“You got laid on your ass, that’s what that was,” he said. “S’what happens when you’re a cocky little shit.”

I glared at him. “I’m paying you to point out weaknesses like that to me,” I said. “If you can’t do that, I’ll find a different trainer.”

Reggie rolled his eyes at me. “Please…, you think I’m scared of that little threat? You’ve been saying it for months now,” he laughed. “I’m the best and you know it. That’s why you hired me. So, how about you start respecting my methods.”

“Why should I? I train every single day and yet just got put on my ass by a guy who hasn’t been in the ring for months. Maybe your methods are shit if I’m not seeing results.”

Reggie stared at me, crossing his arms.

“Wanna keep running your mouth, boy?” he said, giving me the stink eye. I glared at him before shrugging. I sat myself down in my chair at the corner of the ring. I used my towel to dry the sweat on my shoulders before taking another swig of my drink.

Reggie sighed and walked over to me. He leant on the ropes beside me.

“Look,” he said. “Juice is a special case. Kid’s got talent but doesn’t want to use it. He’s the kind of kid who can go years without training and that raw talent will just kick in.”

I glared at him. “Are you leading up to a point?” I asked. “Because none of what you’re saying is very encouraging to me.”

Reggie smirked. “You want encouragement? Then get Taylor to train you with the toddies,” he said. “You want real talk, you come to me.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Like I said, Juice has raw talent, but he lacks in refined technique. Fighters like you and me are the ones that put in the hard work for this shit. We play strategically with a combination of fluid motion, quick thinking–”

“–and heart,” I finished for him. “Yeh, I know. Not like you haven’t spouted that shit to me a hundred times.”

Reggie laughed before staring out the gym doors as he watched Juice walk out.

“Besides,” he said. “You know how my boy is. He’d never hurt a fly if he could avoid it and it’s why he never fit in in the ring. Guys like me and you are the ones meant to be here. Don’t let Juicy get to ya, but do take his advice. Kid knows what he’s lookin’ at, and he can thank his pa for that skill.”

I rolled my eyes at Reggie, taking one last swig of my water as I calmed down in the ring and watched Juice walk out too.

It was true, Reggie was Juice’s dad, and had trained him from age three to be in the ring, but Juice had quit around ten years later because he hated the atmosphere. He’d introduced me to the sport when he’d realised, I’d needed an outlet for my anger and frustration.

He introduced me to his dad and _ba-da-bing ba-da-boom_ I became a champ. I had Juice to thank for it, but that didn’t mean I appreciated his ‘constructive criticism’. Felt more like snide jabs to me, besides the fact he was my best friend.

Reggie gave me a slap on the shoulder before he eyed me.

“Shake it off, kid. We’ll work more on it tomorrow. Right now, I seem to remember you have to pick a certain someone up from school…” he trailed off with a smirk before he let himself under the ropes and walked away.

My eyes widened and I gawked as my eyes tore to the clock on the opposite wall of the gym. I cursed when I realised I had mere minutes to spare.

Coraline would kill me if I was late _again._ I’d been late every day this week and it had even been raining on Monday and now she had a stuffy nose to show for it.

I rushed to get my things together and sprinted to the showers, ignoring my aching legs. The water didn’t even get the chance to get warm as I rushed to soap up and rinse off. It was probably for the best anyway, because the cold water was acting like a lacklustre ice bath for my muscles.

I shoved on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt from my locker before I shoved my feet into my riding boots and pulled on my cut. I shoved the rest of my workout gear into my locker and ran from the bathrooms.

I passed by Juice’s cousin Taylor behind the counter as I ran out.

“See ya tomorrow, babe,” she called. “Don’t forget you promised to show off for the toddies at 6 tomorrow night!” I gave a half-hearted wave to her with a grin, absentmindedly adding that to my list of shit I had to do. I’d forgotten I’d promised her I’d do that, but oh well.

I revved the engine on my bike before I raced from the gym. The drive to the high school was pretty short but that was beside the point.

Many are probably asking why I was picking up my little sister from school. Well, while as a seventeen-year-old, Coraline was old enough to have a license and drive herself – or ride, if our father would allow her to – after what happened last year, dear old dad wasn’t so keen on having Cora behind the wheel.

It was a miracle she’d even learnt to drive at all… after Mom….

I shook my head, driving the thoughts from my mind as I rounded the corner to the school. That was why I was left to act as Cora’s chauffeur. I sighed, cursing as I watched the last car in the parking lot leave.

Cora was nowhere to be seen. She usually sat and waited for me on the front steps near the high school sign, but I couldn’t find her.

A string of curse words filtered through my gritted teeth as I revved my bike and began to ride down the direction of home. The clubhouse.

I kept my eyes peeled as I made my way through empty streets. I was going to kill Cora when I found her. I wasn’t even that late. Only like thirty minutes.

Ahhhh what the hell. I was the worst brother in the fucking world.

_No wonder dad hasn’t made you President_ , I told myself. _You can’t even remember to pick up your kid sister…_

I rolled my eyes as I made my way up the driveway of the clubhouse. I was just praying that her stubborn ass had made it back here. I was also praying that if she had, that dad hadn’t seen her here yet. I didn’t need her taddling on me.

I parked my bike and pressed inside, taking the stairs two at a time until I found myself outside her bedroom door. I could hear music faintly surfacing through the crack below the wood and I rolled my eyes.

I thumped my fist on the door. “Cor!” I called. “Are you in there?”

_“Piss off, asshole!”_

I smirked. Well, at least she was home. I ignored her request and instead turned the handle and shoved the door open. I kept my eyes closed just in case she was naked or something.

I didn’t need an image like that to scar my brain.

“What the fuck, Lou?! Get the fuck out!”

“Language, Cor,” I grinned, before shutting the door. “Now, is it safe to open my eyes?”

I heard her scoff. “No. And I hope you go fucking blind, you inconsiderate prick.”

I grinned and slowly peeked through my fingers. My little sister – emphasis on the _little_ – was sitting on her bed with a magazine in her hands, casually flicking through it. I grinned before I tackled her in a hug on her bed.

“Oh my god!” she cried out. “Get off me you fucking whale-sized rhino ass dickhead.”

“Creative,” I laughed as I managed to find her waist and start pinching. She let out a squeal as I started tickling her. “Say you forgive me for not picking you up,” I said as I held her hostage.

Cora tried to glare at me but it didn’t quite work. Her face was contorted as she tried not to laugh and tried to be angry with me all at once.

“Not a chance. I had to fucking walk home, you ass.”

I chuckled to myself as her words sounded off with her cold. She rolled her eyes at me and I finally let up on the tickling.

“Come on, Coryyyyyyyyy,” I pleaded. “I got held back at training and seriously tried to make it as fast as I could.”

Cora glared at me, shaking her head.

“You know, it’s not even me who’s mad,” she said. “Like, its shit that I can’t just ride myself, but, Dad’s the one who really cares if you don’t pick me up…” she trailed off.

My eyes widened.

“You didn’t tell him already? Did you…?”

Cora narrowed her eyes at me and I held my breath somewhat. Then she smirked.

“No. I didn’t, you lucky shit. But if it happens again, I’m going straight to him,” she warned. I grinned, pulling her close into a hug.

“Awwwwwww, thanks, Cor, I knew you loved me enough not to send me to the wolves.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” she muttered. “I’m still pissed with you though, so don’t think you’re off the hook. I mean, I had to walk home with a hundred textbooks so you can pay all my medical bills in the future for having a bad back.”

I grinned. “Well, if it makes you feel better,” I said, “I was late because Juice was laying me out in the ring.”

Cora laughed. “Ha! Did he kick your ass?”

I rolled my eyes. “Well… technically, I mean… yeah, I guess…”

Cora guffawed and I rolled my eyes at her. “Alright, consider yourself forgiven,” she grinned. “And remind me to buy Juice a drink for giving you hell.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re seventeen, you can’t buy drinks, Cor.”

She shrugged and rolled her eyes.

“Perks of a home-bar and being Pres’ daughter, then,” she grinned.

I rolled my eyes and got up off her bed, making my way to the door. “I promise I won’t be late tomorrow,” I said, turning the handle.

“Better not,” she muttered before making a sound like she didn’t believe me and waving me off. I grinned as she focused back on her magazine and I shut the door behind me.

Now _I_ needed a drink.

.

**Welcome to the first official chapter of the new book :)**


	4. 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

**Lauren**

My head felt heavy, like it had been pumped full of lead, or concrete. I was cold, and only had the skimpy clothes on my back to keep me warm. I had been sitting here for days, literal days, and only a few hours ago they’d decided to move me.

I had long ago figured out that I was in a cage. A small one at that. The bars were too cold to lean against, so I was stuck trying to huddle in the foetal position on the floor, crouched into a ball to try and maintain some kind of body warmth.

My cage had a blanket or some sort of coverall placed over it to prevent me from seeing what else was in the room, plus I could tell that it was dark. Every now and again, I’d hear someone crying, or whimpering, or even teeth chattering from the cold.

So, I knew I wasn’t alone.

That, and, for the last little while – I had no concept of time in here – I could hear frightened squeaks as those around me were slowly wheeled from the room and taken elsewhere.

While I wanted out of this damn cage, I didn’t think I wanted to know where we were being taken. How was I being fed, you may ask? Well, every time I fell asleep, I woke up to a bowl of cold oatmeal and one glass of water.

As far as I could tell, they only fed us once a ‘day’, and it was my only way of keeping track of how long I’d been there.

I’d been fed eight times so far.

It was too dark to see in front of me but I could imagine that if I could see, I’d notice the clouds of breath wisping from my lips with every exhale. My limbs felt numb and I’m sure my lips were a permanent blue by now.

My clothing – a short pair of pants of thin material, and an old worn out shirt with a few holes in it – wasn’t much.

My eyes widened as I heard footsteps approaching me. They stopped a few steps from me before I heard a clank. I could tell that the sound echoed throughout the room – maybe it was a warehouse of some kind – but to me, it was muted by the coverall blanket over my crate.

I sat up in a hurry, my eyes trying to scan my meagre surroundings for some semblance of anything that would make sense.

How did I even get here? How did I end up in this literal hell scape.

My body jolted as the corner of my crate was lifted onto some kind of machine with wheels. I held in a squeak of frightened terror as I was wheeled out of the room. The only sounds I could hear were the whirring and clicking of the machine carrying me.

My eyes were wide as I tried to take in any kind of information. I hugged my knees close to myself. I squinted as I was wheeled into a bright room. I could see that the blanket over my cage had a print of daisies on it and I cringed. It was so thin, no wonder I hadn’t maintained any heat.

I could see the shadows of people moving around me and I bit my lip, trying to keep quiet. Maybe they would ignore me if I didn’t make any noise.

My body wrenched as the machine dropped my crate. Then, moments later, the blanket over my cage was reefed away and I was left shivering in some kind of bedroom. It looked more like a stage bedroom, because otherwise, I had no idea how that machine had brought me in here.

I looked up with wide eyes and they fell on the man who’d taken the blanket. He was tall and broad shouldered and he was wearing a mask so I couldn’t see his face.

I cowered away from him as he walked towards me. However, it didn’t really work. He unlocked the door to the cage before pulling me out and to my feet. I squeaked in fear as he pulled me to my feet.

He got me to stand on shaky legs. I was afraid I’d fall over. I shivered, afraid I’d crumble before I winced as he reached out a hand to tuck a strand of my honey blonde hair behind my ear.

“Precious little flower, you are,” he grunted, his voice harsh and thick. A single tear rolled down my cheek as I watched his eyes devour me. “Gonna get a good price for that ass.”

I closed my eyes, trying to block out his words.

What did he mean?

I whimpered when his large hands came to my waist. I closed my eyes and tried not to feel disgusting as he fingered the hem of my flimsy shirt before raising it over my shoulders. Then he crouched down and brought my shorts down my legs. He flicked at my thighs to make me step out of them.

I wanted to scream. His touch was not welcome, nor was it gentle. It was everything I didn’t want.

I stood shivering in just a bra and panties. They weren’t anything special, just a simple cotton pair. Before I could do or say anything, he grabbed my arms, making me wince.

He tucked them behind my back at an angle that made my breasts stick out more, then he walked behind me. He started wrapping my forearms together with some kind of material, tight enough that I couldn’t break free.

My mind was running rampant at the thought of what he was about to do to me. I had seen enough movies and read enough headlines to know what was about to happen. I just didn’t think that they did this first. I figured that if he was going to rape me then he would have just done it in the cage.

I was confused and scared. I felt as his fingers whispered up the sides of my waist, tickling the exposed skin before his palms came up to the underwire of my bra. I held my breath before his fingers pushed underneath the fabric.

I grit my teeth and closed my eyes as his unwelcome hands cupped the mounds of my breasts and squeezed. My stomach tightened with the want to throw up as a wave of nausea overcame me.

Bile rose to my throat when his fingertips found my nipples and squeezed.

He grunted in appreciation and I swallowed the sob in my throat. My eyes were squeezed shut.

“Fuck,” he whispered to himself. “Boss usually wants you girls in lingerie, but I sense the virgin inside you,” he said. “The childish innocence of what you’re wearing is gonna make the bidders go wild. You might even be the best bet of the night.”

My eyebrows creased as I tried to understand what the hell he was talking about. But his words were as confusing as the flick of his tongue and the lilt of his accent. I could feel his breath at my neck, making goose pimples rise on my skin.

His nose pressed to my hair and inhaled deeply, making me shudder in disgust. Then suddenly, his hands pulled out of my bra and away from my skin. I heard some kind of material behind me, and I bit my lip.

I jumped when his fingers were in my hair again, smoothing it out of the way, then his hands came around into my view. I peeked an eye open and saw that he was holding up some kind of blindfold. He placed it gently over my eyes before tying it tight behind my head.

I bit my lip as my vision was taken from me and I was left blind. There was nothing remotely comfortable about my situation. Standing almost naked in unfamiliar surroundings with my arms and eyes bound.

I gasped in fright when I felt hands come around my waist again. From his angle, I guess that he was in front of me. They wound down and placed themselves on the globes of my ass.

I held in my cry of anger and desperation as he squeezed those too. His grunt of satisfaction had me wanting to throw up again. He slapped my ass with both hands, making me jump forward.

My skin stung beneath my cotton panties and I felt a tear dampen my blindfold. That was going to bruise.

Then his hands were gone again. I was left alone, standing stock still as I listened to his footsteps retreat away from me. I didn’t know enough about my surroundings to make any kind of move forward. I cursed myself for having not looked around and run for some kind of exit.

_They would have killed you if you’d tried_ , my head reminded me. I bit my lip at the thought.

Then he was back again, and some kind of metal was clamed around my neck. I could hear the clink of chains, and from the weight of my new _necklace_ , I assumed that I was being led on a chained leash like some kind of dog.

“Walk,” he grunted. He pulled on the chain, making me jolt forward as he pulled me. I took slow, careful steps, blind to everything around me and frightened by every minute noise.

My skin prickled suddenly, and I could tell that I was in a different room than the bedroom. This room felt bigger, if the echo of silence was anything to go off. What’s more, this room was even colder. I could feel my nipples become hard at the temperature and I was sure that they’d done it on purpose just to make them poke indents in my bra.

I bit my lip, trying not to make a sound as I was led up a flight of three stairs. I was then jolted to a stop and I felt like I was completely on display.

The weight of the chain was dropped and I felt like it was now attached to something so I couldn’t run away. I guess that that was also the purpose of the stairs, so that if I tried to escape, I’d fall flat on my face.

“Twenty-year-old virgin,” a voice suddenly said. They were loud, and I could hear a faint amount of feedback. My mind whirled as I realised the man was talking into a microphone and my suspicions about a large room were confirmed.

If I had to guess, I’d have said I was in front of some kind of audience.

This man’s voice was harsher than the other man’s, so I concluded they were two different people.

“Orphan. Picked up twelve days ago on the streets of Atlanta. No strings attached,” the voice added. I held back tears at the mention of my parents. I wasn’t an orphan. Twelve days? I had only counted eight?

_What the hell had these men done to my parents?_

I unconsciously took a step forward but was jolted back by my neck and I gasped. I let out a cry when something hard cracked against the exposed skin of my midsection. I cringed into myself, unable to cradle my middle due to my bound arms.

There was a rumble in front of me, I assumed dissatisfaction from whatever crowd was being spoken to.

“As you can see, she’s untrained,” the man said disapprovingly. “But, as I understand it… many of you prefer to enforce your own rules through various methods of training…”

His voice trailed off and I shivered. My ears pricked as I heard shuffling. Someone was shifting their feet, or maybe adjusting their sitting position.

“As you all know, we ask a high price for our virgins, but I’m sure you’ll all deliver.”

There was a beat of silence, before a distant voice spoke up.

“How can you guarantee she’s never been touched?” he asked. My eyes widened beneath my blindfold as I heard the man at the microphone chuckle.

“We have our methods,” he said. There was a smirk evident within his words and I shivered at his admission at my violation. “You can be assured that we’re telling the truth, sir.”

There was a rumble of agreement among the audience. I cowered slightly.

“We’ll start the bidding at ten thousand dollars,” the man said. My eyes widened as it finally clicked inside my head.

This was an auction.

I was being sold.

No doubt as some kind of sexual pet or slave or something.

I needed a toilet. I wanted to wretch out my guts.

My mind whirled with a hundred questions and realisations as I heard a number of men begin to place bids, and my price grew.

“Fifteen thousand. Do I hear twenty?” the auctioneer asked.

I couldn’t believe someone was willing to pay fifteen thousand American dollars just to buy me.

“Sixty thousand. Do I hear seventy?”

My jaw threatened to drop as the number only kept climbing.

“One hundred thousand. Do I hear one ten?”

I could feel tears slipping freely down my cheeks.

“Two hundred and fifty thousand,” someone shouted from the back of the room. There was a beat of silence as the crowd took in his bid.

“Two hundred and fifty from the man in the green coat,” the auctioneer said. His voice sounded giddy with greed and I wanted to gag. “Do I hear two hundred sixty?”

He was met with resounding silence.

“Going once.”

My heart was in my throat as it set in that this was really happening.

“Going twice.”

My stomach dropped at a speed faster than Usain Bolt’s one hundred metre dash.

“Third and final call,” the auctioneer said. Despite having never laid eyes on the man, I could practically picture his grin.

My fingernails cut moons into my palms as I clenched my fists. I wanted to break free. I wanted to run away.

I wanted to die.

_“Sold. To the man in the green coat.”_

My fate was sealed as I heard the crack of a wooden gavel against its holster.

I didn’t know what happened next because my shaky legs lost their footing and I slipped. My head smacked against the floor and I was out for the count.

.

**Poor Lauren.**


	5. 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

**Lucas**

“Please deposit all weapons and sharp items in the locker provided. You can reclaim them upon exit.”

I looked up at the Correctional Officer with a bored look but sighed, proceeding to walk over to the locker that he gestured at haphazardly. I emptied my pockets and slammed the locker door with slight emphasis to show him how I felt about this particular act.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was necessary but that didn’t mean I was happy about it. I surveyed the man as I walked back over to him. He was slightly taller than me, slim but his musculature was lean. His hair was buzzed, and his uniform was pristine.

I eyed the baton and handcuffs dangling from his utility belt with the condescending raise of my eyebrow. He motioned for me to raise my arms so that he could frisk me. I grit my teeth as his hands roamed and clamped on my arms, legs, and midsection to check me for anything that could be used to harm anyone inside, or items that could be traded.

It didn’t matter that I’d be sitting behind a glass wall, apparently.

He took a step back and nodded to the other guard by the door before stepping out of my way.

“You get thirty minutes,” the guard at the door said. He looked like a spitting image of the one who’d frisked me and I vaguely wondered whether they were all robots in disguise.

Maybe the Warden was too cheap to spring for more than one model. I chuckled at my small joke to myself before I walked inside. I sat down at one of the booths and waited for them to open the door on the other side of the glass.

It didn’t take long before I heard the buzz of the siren and I watched my friend be marched out by two guards. From what I could tell, he looked alright. I’d made sure that our guys on the inside would look out for him, not that Jax couldn’t hold his own.

He sat down in our booth and picked up the phone with a smirk. His eyes were dancing and I grinned before I picked mine up too.

“Bring me any porn?” was his first question. I rolled my eyes and gave him the finger in response. Jax let out a belly laugh and shook his head. I eyed him, wondering if maybe he’d been put in solitude for a while and this was why he was acting weird.

“Nah, I’m just playin’,” he grinned. I narrowed my eyes at him and he grinned. “You were doing that thing again where you speak without meaning to…”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Of course I was.”

Jax grinned and adjusted his seating position. “So, to what do I owe this glorious visit?”

My lips hardened into a line. “Pres’ orders,” I said drily, shrugging. Jax’s jaw dropped and he put a hand to his chest as I grinned. He faked a sob, clutching at his jumpsuit as he wiped away fake tears.

“I can’t believe you didn’t want to come see me,” he said, his voice all high as if imitating a scorned housewife. “How quickly you dismiss our love. I’d at least thought I was worth a conjugal, if not a home cooked meal.”

I rolled my eyes. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor, Viper,” I grinned. Jax just chuckled, dropping the act.

“Nah, it’d take more than a few weeks in here to break me,” he said, his voice low. “Now, for real. Whatcha doin’ here?”

I shrugged. “Juice was pissing me off. Needed someone else to talk to.”

Jax rolled his eyes. “You got a whole damn house full of brothers and you’re telling me that you gotta drag your sorry ass out here just to _chat_? Bull.”

I sighed, not answering. Jax grinned.

“He laid ya out, didn’t he?” Jax guessed. I glared at my friend. He just chortled down the phone when he realized he’d hit the nail on the head.

He carried on for a few moments and I considered hanging up and walking out. It was obvious that my decision to visit him was a stupid one. When he calmed down, he sent a wicked smirk my way.

“Fuck, Tal,” he grinned. “I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.”

I glared at him some more.

Jax shrugged. “If you wanted sympathy, you wouldn’t’ve come here. ‘Sides, the only action in here is fights and you know I’d rather be on the watching side of that. It’s the reason I’m in here anyway, ain’t it? Gotta laugh at something.”

I sighed. “I guess. We got sent the court fees today, by the way.”

Jax leaned in. “What’s the verdict? Shortened sentence? I mean, I know six months, but seeing as it’s my first offence I thought maybe they’d just give me a warning…”

I shook my head. “Nah, no change in time served,” I said. “It was just the fees, but I got you covered.”

Jax rolled his eyes. “Well I should think so. It was your fight that landed me in here.”

My jaw dropped and I glared playfully at my friend. “Hey, no one asked you to place a bet, dipshit.”

Jax just grinned. “Yeah, I guess. Damn stupid for not checking the bookie’s creds. Once I got a good look at him it was so damn obvious the guy was a blue boy. But I’d already placed a bet and he had me so, nothing I could do.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“Too greedy to pay attention, huh?” I smirked. Jax rolled his eyes and waved me off.

“You’re telling me you wouldn’t be blind for a quarter mil? I’m calling bull on that.”

I laughed, wiping the hair out of my face. There was a moment of silence between us and Jax sighed.

“So…, did he kick you butt?” he asked, changing the subject. I clenched my jaw, glaring at my hands.

“Asshole told me I was twisting,” growled. Jax grinned at me.

“And were you?”

I rolled my eyes. “ _Maybe…_ ”

Jax started guffawing again and I growled down the line to grab his attention.

“Whatever,” I grumbled. “I don’t see you winning any fights.”

Jax smirked at me. “Yeah, but I ain’t takin’ on the King.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, if I have it my way, he won’t be King for long. Dude doesn’t even compete anymore. I’m gonna smash his records, and then I’m gonna smash his stupid smug face.”

Jax rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Tal. Just promise me one thing?”

“What?”

Jax grinned. “At least wait ‘til I’m released ‘til you challenge him in the ring for real. I wanna be there when you get your ass handed to you on a public stage.”

I rolled my eyes, glaring at my friend.

“Have you no faith in me?”

Jax grinned, shaking his head. “Course I do. It was your fight that got me in here, remember?” he said. “I have so much faith on you that I bet in for a quarter mil, dude. It’s just… well I mean there’s you,” he said, holding up one hand, “Then there’s OJ,” he held up his other hand, but it was higher than the one he’d indicated was me.

I glared at him. “Alright, this conversation’s over.”

Jax chortled at the disgruntled expression on my face. “Alright, suit yourself, Tal. Good luck with it, and hey!”

“What?”

“At least _try_ to bring porn next time. Dude’s gotta work with something, you know?”

I rolled my eyes at my horny friend and sent him the bird, to which he laughed. Then I watched as he hung up the phone and walked back to the guards, who sent him back inside.

Buzz cuts 1 & 2 gave me my personals back before I left, giving me twin glares of disdain as I left. I rolled my eyes at them as I swung a leg over my bike and got the hell out of there.

Jax didn’t think I could take on Juice, but I knew that I could beat him. Even if it meant I had to listen to Reggie and complete his training techniques then I didn’t care. Everybody seemed to think Juice had it in the bag, and I was going to prove them all wrong.

.

My lips were set into a hard line as I pulled up at the highschool. I was early today. I’d made sure of it. I had skipped out on training to meet with Jax, and I’d made sure that the drive would result in me being on time to pick up Cora.

It was the most organized I’d been in about – well, my entire life really.

I heard the final bell for the day ring, and minutes later, I watched as Cora emerged from the school. She had her headphones out and ready, as if already anticipating that she’d have to walk home.

I watched her scan the school lot, and then her eyes widened in actual surprise when she saw me. Really, was it so surprising that I was on time for once? I guess maybe it was.

Cora shoved her phone into her bag as she made her way over to me. She rose her eyebrow at me.

“Wow, I didn’t realise technology had come so far,” she said. I narrowed my eyes at her, confused. “And wow! The quality is just amazing!”

I sighed, waiting for her to get to her point.

“I mean, I would have thought that we were years away from getting actual holograms, but I guess we’re farther ahead than I thought, because there is no way that I am actually seeing the real life _you_ in the flesh right now.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ha ha, very funny.”

Cora grinned at me. “I’m just playing,” she laughed. “No but seriously, what happened? Your gym burn down or something?” She swung her leg over the back of my bike and took the spare helmet that I gestured in her direction.

“You know, you should really take your comedy show on the road,” I said drily. “I’m sure you’d bring crowds from all over.”

Cora laughed, digging her fingers into my sides slightly. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, maybe you could be my opening act,” she said. “ _Oh wait_ ,” she taunted, “No, that wouldn’t work. That would require actual commitment from you.”

I chuckled and revved my handlebars as my sister got comfortable behind me.

“Harsh,” I said. Cora giggled behind me as she wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Truth hurts,” she shrugged. I grinned, sighing as I booted up my kickstand and let the weight of the bike be controlled by my legs as I backed out of my space.

“Nah, I went to see Jax,” I said. “That’s why I’m early.”

Cora nodded, squeezing me slightly.

“He alright?”

I shrugged. “Same Jax as usual, so I guess it means he hasn’t been running that big mouth to the wrong crew and getting himself shanked.”

“Yet…” Cora joked. I chuckled, nodding before I revved my engine one more time and we were silent as we pulled out of the lot.

The club house was loud when we arrived. Cora didn’t say anything when we got there, instead opting to just race upstairs and slam her door shut. I rolled my eyes as I made my way inside.

I passed a few of the brothers playing a game of poker in the den. I contemplated jetting out of there and going to the gym, but I knew Reggie was teaching a toddies class with Taylor this afternoon. I mentally slapped myself upside the head when I remembered that I was supposed to go in to show off for them tonight.

I sighed, shrugging to myself. One thing at a time I guess. I’d go in later and just say that I thought I was supposed to come later.

I tapped one of the brothers on the shoulder and he didn’t turn around. Instead he grunted to acknowledge my presence and I rolled my eyes.

“Seen Pres?” I asked.

“Back porch,” he muttered. I grinned, slapping his back encouragingly.

“Thanks man, go for the straight,” I grinned, before darting out of reach so the guy couldn’t punch me for giving away his hand. The rest of the brothers around the table chuckled as they took his money.

“You better watch yourself, boy,” he muttered. I chuckled, waving him off. He sent me the finger as I made my way out to the back. There were a few men sitting around, most of the guys were my Dad’s age.

They were first generation of our club, and all had patches that indicated so. They were the first eleven, though, there were only about six of them left.

Gage’s father was gone, as was Jax’s, and Jax’s uncle, among a few others.

My eyes fell on my own father. His tan skin was hard to miss among the group of white men, as was his salt and peppered hair. He had a cigarette hanging from his lips, which he puffed away on languidly.

His tawny eyes found mine and he motioned for me to take a seat.

Richard ‘Phantom’ Knight was a quiet, tame man when he wanted to be. But I knew about his temper, and it was just a general rule that if Pres told you to do something, you did it without question. So, you can bet that I sat my ass down in that chair beside him.

A few more years of kissing his ass and he’d make me President. I was sure of it.

“How’s the kid?” he asked, his voice low and gravelly. Part of that was due to his smoker’s lungs and the other part was due to his age. The things I’d told Jax weren’t a lie. My dad _had_ sent me there, but he didn’t know that I’d already been planning to visit anyway.

I shrugged. “He’s good. Muggs is looking out for him in there, as well as Ticker. Says he wants porn on the next visit though.”

There was a small chorus of chuckles from the group of men. My father just rolled his eyes, though there was a small smirk playing about his lips.

“Typical,” he grunted. “Though, I guess I expect nothing less.”

“Yeah,” one of the men in the group – Kickstand – chimed in. “I remember when I went inside. Shit’s hard, especially going from the pussy party we got goin’ on here. Be like quittin’ cold turkey, you know?”

I grinned at the older man. He was only younger than my father by a few years, but he was one of the most respected brothers in the club – despite his roadname. Most clubs had their version of ‘kickstand’. You usually earnt that title if you forgot to put your kickstand down when you parked you bike, which resulted in it falling over.

In our Kickstand’s case, he’d forgotten to put his down, but then of course his bike had been at the end of the line. And when his fell…, well that shit had looked like a game of dominoes. I hadn’t been alive when it happened, but there was an old photo of it hanging up somewhere in the house.

He’d never lived it down.

“And Reggie?” my father asked. I nodded. I knew he’d want an update on my training at some point. He and Reggie also went way back. Reggie had never been in the club, and neither was Juice, and I couldn’t even remember how my father was friends with Reggie but I wasn’t going to ask.

It probably had something to do with the fact that they were both dinosaurs. Okeechobee had barely been a town before my father had rolled in with his club almost forty years ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if Reggie had been here when my Dad opened the club.

“Yeah, he’s good. He’s got me going in tonight to show off for the younger kids,” I said. Phantom nodded, taking a drag from his smoke.

“And you’re up for it?”

I ignored the slight jab in his voice. He was always questioning whether I was good enough to do shit. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d come out of the womb swinging and punching. My father would still push me and question my motives and my skill.

I knew why he did it. He wanted to push me to be better, always to be the best. But, there were other ways to motivate your children.

He probably thought that the tough love would better prepare me for the role as President. And well, I could only hope so. Otherwise, my twenty-three years of struggle with him would have been a waste.

“Yeah. He’s got me training pretty much every day. I could pretty much beat anyone by this point.”

Phantom rose an eyebrow at me. I frowned. I knew that look in his eye as his lips broke into a playful grin. Don’t get me wrong, as much as my father was a hardass, he was also a very loving parental figure. He knew how to take a joke, and definitely knew how to make one.

“Really?” he questioned, his voice light and taunting. “Even Juice?”

I sighed, rolling my eyes as the rest of the men in the group laughed.

“I’m gonna kill Cora,” I muttered to myself. My father guffawed and clapped me on the back, taking another drag from his smoke. I rolled my eyes at all his friends.

“I’ll never live it down, will I?’ I asked. Kickstand raised his beer to me.

“I know I never did, kid. Better get used it,” he laughed. I sighed, rolling my eyes with a smirk and getting up.

“Alright, well you old shits can all talk the talk, but I’ll be in the ring if you really wanna settle this crap,” I grinned. My father waved me off.

“Oh please,” he grinned. “We’ve all got years of practice on you, hotshot.”

His friends all laughed and I rolled my eyes, waving them off by flicking the bird as I walked away. They all laughed behind me, going back to their original conversation. I knew all their teasing was good natured, but it only made me want to get better.

Which was why I grabbed my keys and swung my leg over my bike. Their jabs became the playlist with which I motivated myself.

I would prove them all wrong.

.

**Ummmm okay but Lucas and Cora are actual sibling goals… I tried to channel the banter that I have with my own brother – who, is the human embodiment of an actual asshole, so there’s that at least.**


	6. 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**Lucas**

“C’mon, dude, it’s Saturday night. What the hell else are we gonna do?”

I rolled my eyes at Juice’s piss weak attempt to get me to come out with him.

“Dude, the clubs in this town are shit. We’re better off just drinking here,” I said. Juice whined like a kid who’d been told he couldn’t have any more candy on Halloween. I smirked at him with a chuckle.

“But I don’t wannaaaaaaaa,” he said, his voice all pitchy in that way that he used just to piss me off. “I wanna go out and have fun. Don’t you wanna have fun, bro?”

I laid back on my bed, thumbing the football in my hands. I’d been throwing it up towards the roof before catching it when it came down again. It was only about eight at night, so bars weren’t even open yet.

Saturday night was usually fight night, so instead of being bored in my house, I was usually psyching myself up for battle. Tonight though, the place that we’d planned to fight had been stormed by the police because someone had to have tattled, so we were laying low and my fight was postponed.

“Dude, no. All you wanna do is bang some random chick,” I growled. Juice smirked at me as I threw the ball in the air again.

“Or chicks. Plural. Ya feel?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“Well, come on,” he said, snatching the ball mid air and making me glare at him. “You haven’t got laid in weeks and you’ve been crabby. You need to let some of that shit out.”

I thought about his statement. He was right. It had been a while since I’d chased some tail. I sighed as I realized that he knew he had me right where he wanted me. I glared at my friend, sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

“Fine. What did you have in mind then?”

Juice grinned, throwing my ball back into my hands before crossing his over his chest.

“Strip club.”

I rolled my eyes and fell backwards on my bed again, ignoring Juice’s cackling.

.

“I cannot believe Juice dragged you here!” I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around, my eyes cast downward as they laid on Manny, the owner of the club.

He was grinning up at me and slapped his arm around my back giving me a man hug with a laugh. I rolled my eyes but reciprocated.

Manny usually bet big on my fights, so we knew each other well enough. I had – after all – made him enough money to fund this joint.

“Take a seat; I’ll send you the best broad in the house,” he said, waving his hands around.

“Hey! What about me?” Juice complained from beside me. Manny just rolled his eyes at my friend before pointing a finger sternly at him.

“You’re lucky I let your cheap ass in here,” Manny said. “You shortchange my girls again tonight and you’ll be out on your ass.”

Juice just grinned, rolling his eyes and waving Manny off. “It ain’t shortchanging, Manny. I’m just giving them something better than money,” he laughed.

Manny scowled. “Like what? An STD?”

I laughed out loud at Manny’s brazen attitude and at the insinuation that Juice didn’t wrap his dick. Juice rolled his eyes at me before grabbing my arm and jerking me around to a front row seat for the stage.

I ran a hand through my hair as Rihanna and Drake’s _Work_ came through the speakers. The neon strobe lights dimmed somewhat as four women emerged from a door at the end of the catwalk.

They were all dressed in their skimpy dancing outfits and… well, I’m a guy. I couldn’t sit there and say that they weren’t affecting me. Juice was right. I hadn’t gotten laid in weeks and these girls looked more tempting than ice cream on a hot day.

They all moved slowly and seductively down the catwalk before standing around four poles. They began their flirty dances, much to the delight of the other men in the club. There were a few hoots going around as the girls spun themselves around and upside down, giving the audience a good view of some of their greatest _ass_ ets.

Juice was grinning down at me as I stared transfixed at the girls. Someone set a beer down in front of me and I took it, downing the thing.

Manny must have hooked us up with free drinks for the night.

All four girls started bouncing in unison to the beat of the song, twerking their asses in the air and making my dick stiff with the image that they could bounce on my dick the same way.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and down my face. The song ended and the girls moved into other dances with a few other girls appeared out from the back to waitress drinks around and give lap dances to those who tipped big and weren’t too handsy. And to Juice apparently.

When I looked over, he had a blonde over his thighs, grinding down on his lap like it was the only thing she knew how to do.

Juice had a shit eating grin plastered across his lips and his eyes were dazed as he was serviced. I rolled my eyes, turning back to the stage.

While the lights had gone back to their intermittent strobing effect while the other girls had danced, they were dimming once again. I frowned as I watched the stage.

Juice had dragged me here enough times for me to know Manny’s routine of dances and dancers for the night, but this was something I hadn’t seen before. My eyes narrowed as the girls who’d been at the poles, curled out into the crowd and disappeared. Then a dim spotlight was directed towards the catwalk again.

A young woman emerged, fully nude – an act that I’d never seen from any of Manny’s dancers before. Hoots of excitement and cat calls surrounded the room as the girl walked seductively down the catwalk.

She was thin in the way that showed her body had been trained in dance. I could make out the sinews of fine, strong muscles. It was evident in her slow movements, because I knew as such meant that she had to be incredibly strong.

Her breasts were smaller than the other girls, and her nipples were rosy and pointed. Her whole body seemed lithe; from the taught her of midsection down to the point of her toes as she danced.

Her curly brown hair was in her face and she wore a mask over her eyes, probably to protect her identity from the creepers that regulated this place. But none of that mattered, because her eyes were so incredibly captivating.

They were a slight green color, pale to the point where they looked opaque. They were in such a contrast to her freckled skin and her dark hair.

The girl was completely beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

I’d never seen her in this place before, which meant that Manny was hiring again. I cursed under my breath as I felt my dick harden slightly under my jeans as I watched her move gracefully around the pole.

The slide of her skin against the cool steel of the pole was doing something otherworldly to my mind and she hadn’t even spoken a word to me, let alone touched me. She had seduced me with her movements alone, and fuck me if I wasn’t a prisoner to her gaze.

She seemed to ignore the other men in the room, because her eyes were on mine. She held my gaze like she was a hungry lioness and I was a helpless gazelle. She walked down from her podium as her song ended and she walked slowly towards me.

I tried to move my eyes anywhere but hers, trying to break the connection that was so strong it was almost unnerving. I tried to look at her breasts, her naked pussy, her fingernails, anything.

But she wouldn’t let me.

I was her prisoner.

She walked right up to me before turning around and lowering her ass onto my lap. I let out a slow breath as she ground against me. She leant backwards so that she was against my chest, then she grabbed my hands, opened the palms and pressed them to her chest.

Her skin was warm to the touch and I exhaled slowly. I could feel Lucas Junior having a field day in my pants as this woman showed me she wanted to be touched. I slowly dragged my fingers down her skin, ghosting over her breasts and the peaks of her nipples.

She shivered beneath me, grinding ever so slowly against my member.

My mind was going into overdrive.

Shit. Was this really all over a woman? _Dude, you really do need to get laid_ , I told myself.

My palms glided down to her midsection and I could feel the ripple of the muscles there. I knew she wouldn’t let me touch her core, and I wasn’t wishing to push it, plus I didn’t feel like being kicked out of the club by Manny, so instead I slid my hands around to her ass.

I squeezed the globes of flesh there before my hands slid down her thighs. The girl let out a breathy moan over me before she got up. She turned slowly and gave me a wink before she glided back to the stage, leaving me completely hard and aroused in my seat.

Manny had seriously meant business when he sent his ‘best broad’. Juice was smirking at the dazed expression on my face but I didn’t even have the energy to flip him off. I was in a trance as I watched her keep dancing, then her song ended and she disappeared down the catwalk again.

I gulped and ran a hand through my hair. Then I got up and excused myself from Juice. He wasn’t listening to me anyway, because he was too focused on the pair of double D’s giving him another lapdance.

I headed towards one of Manny’s private rooms. I hadn’t ordered any company, because all I wanted was to be able to catch my breath after that whole ordeal. My eyes widened as I realized that a naked girl had just rubbed me all up and down and let me touch her and then just walked away.

That did not do wonders for my ego.

Girls didn’t just walk away from me.

And I’d never even learnt her name…

I sighed, sitting down on the sofa in this private room. I grimaced as I felt my dick straining against my pants. It was throbbing and I knew I needed to do something, so I unzipped the denim, letting myself fall into my hand.

I leaned back on the couch, knowing no one would come in while I handled myself.

I closed my eyes and ran my hand up and down my length, spending a moment to swipe and massage the head with each stroke. My breaths became deeper as I tugged myself harder, feeling that familiar pull of arousal in the depths of my stomach.

I grunted as I sped up even more, jerking my member in my hand, back and forth, faster than my blurry vision could track.

I let out a grunt as I felt my cock kick and I gave in to my orgasm. I spurted onto my hand and my hips lifted off the couch as I fucked my own palm. When I came down from my high I sighed and leant back.

I ran my other hand through my hair to get it out of my face before I looked around for something to clean myself up. There was a box of tissues on the table beside the sofa, so I gabbed a handful and wiped away the evidence of my masturbation.

I knew I’d be going home without a girl on my arm tonight. It was more Juice’s style to pick up a stripper than it was mine. I sighed before gathering myself together and standing up.

As I walked from the room, my ears pricked as I heard a thump against a nearby wall. I frowned, turning around. My eyes widened when I heard a girly scream. With the thumping music in the background from the other room, I couldn’t discern if the scream was of joy or terror.

And suddenly, I didn’t have time to investigate, because I heard some yelling coming from the main stage.

I rushed out, only to see that Juice had a guy in a headlock. Manny was yelling at him to get out and I ran over.

“What the fuck, Juice! Let him go, you’re gonna suffocate him!” I glared at my friend. I eyed the odd look in his eye.

He looked like he wanted to murder the guy, which was not the Juice that I knew. Something was wrong here.

Juice finally let the man go, whose face had swelled to a bright purple color. Manny gave Juice a shove, and two of Manny’s security guards clamped a hand down on either of his wrists. I walked after Juice as he was escorted out by security.

Manny rolled his eyes as the two of us left.

“Hey!” he called after me. “Was Faye any good?”

I frowned. “Who?”

Manny grinned. “Faye. My new girl. I sent her over to ya. Tonight was her first night, so, did she seem nervous or what?”

I pursed my lips as I thought about the naked girl, then I shook my head. “Nah, dude. She danced like she was born to do it.”

Manny grinned, rubbing his hands together. I narrowed my eyes at him before then turning my head to keep an eye on Juice.

“What was her name?” I asked.

Manny smirked. “Faye.”

I grinned and nodded. “Well, you need to give her a raise if she’s gonna be starkers every night.”

Manny laughed and waved me off. I walked off after Juice, who was glaring at the security guards. When we made it back to his car, he was still fuming.

“The hell was all that about?” I demanded.

Juice scowled, ignoring me. I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t taking this shit from him.

“Nuh-uh. You don’t get to ignore me right now. You almost just killed that guy. You’re lucky Manny is cool with us or you’d have the cops called on you right now, so tell me what the fuck happened in there?”

Juice scowled. “Guy got too handsy and the girl tried to push him off,” he said through gritted teeth. I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

“So, you stepped in?”

Juice didn’t answer me, because his answer was obvious enough.

“Jesus Christ,” I sighed. “See now why I didn’t wanna come out tonight?”

Juice rolled his eyes at me as he swung his car out of the lot and began driving us back to the club.

“Doesn’t matter now anyway…” he trailed off. I rolled my eyes as I sensed he wasn’t going to talk to me anymore.

Tonight was all over the fucking place, and frankly, I was frazzled.

.

**Yeah, frazzled is one word for it. Horny is another.**


	7. 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**Lauren**

I knew I was on a bed, but that was about it.

The man who had bought me – _the man in the green coat…_ – he hadn’t spoken to me once. My blindfold had stayed on and my arms had stayed bound behind my back as I’d been escorted off stage.

Then I was shoved into the back of some kind of large vehicle. I only knew as much because I hadn’t been cramped back there. As far as I could tell, it had probably been a U-Haul or some other kind of moving truck.

And, as far as I knew, I had been alone.

Alone, half-naked, and so goddamn cold.

Then after I’d managed to get bored enough to count to 3,500 the truck stopped. I couldn’t hear much, but it was dark outside when the doors had been ripped open and I was dragged from the truck and into a standing position.

“Step up,” a woman’s soft voice had said when I’d been led inside. Those were the only words spoken to me and I walked up the flight of stairs before being stood in an open doorway.

My arms were untied and my blindfold ripped away before I was shoved – dazed and confused – to my knees and into the bedroom that I was in now. The door was slammed shut and I was left alone in the darkness before I could so much as take a breath.

I managed to stand on shaky feet before standing frozen as I waited for my eyes to adjust. I could make out a bed in the corner of the small room, and nothing else. The bed had a single mattress on it – no pillows, no sheets. Nothing to keep me from getting hypothermia.

I was still only in the skimpy cotton underwear that I’d been sold in.

My time alone in the truck had allowed my mind to run rampant about the things they’d said about me. The auctioneer had personally promised that I was a virgin, but how the hell could he have known that?

My body felt sticky and violated and all I wanted to do was drown myself in a shower.

He had said I was an orphan, but how the hell was that true? I had two loving parents waiting for me to come home that day… what had they done to them?

_Were my parents still waiting for me by the door?_

_Did they sell me into this?_

_Did they give me up?_

_Was this all some kind of inescapable nightmare?_

I pinched my skin harshly.

Wake up. Wake up. “ _Wake up_ ,” I whispered to myself. No such luck.

I wasn’t in Atlanta anymore, that much was obvious to me.

_Untrained._ They’d said. Trained for what? What the hell would I be trained for.

I was just a waitress trying to make an honest living. I’d just been walking home when that guy jumped me.

“Not just any guy,” I reminded myself. I winced as my vision flooded with memories of _him._ I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he’d appeared out of nowhere… with that pipe…

We’d only dated for a few weeks, but I’d thought we were going to make ourselves official. I’d stupidly believed him when he told me he loved me.

_Sold for two hundred and fifty thousand…_

Was that him? Did he do that to me?

Where was he now?

I could feel tears on my cheeks as I looked around the room again. There was a light switch by the door and I stumbled over. Maybe having the light on would help to calm me down some.

I flicked the switch desperately, casting my eyes up to the lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling. I bit my lip, flicking it again, and again. Up and down, up and down.

Nothing.

Of course, they’d cut the power.

I heard a whimper from somewhere near me and immediately whirled around, my eyes wide, trying to take in as much information as possible. I searched my surroundings but I couldn’t see anything. I frowned, my eyebrows creasing in fear as I bit my lip and walked slowly over to the bed.

I didn’t think I could fit under the bed, but maybe someone small enough…

I kneeled down and pressed my cheek to the floor. My eyes searched underneath the frame but I frowned when all I found were dust bunnies.

My nose wrinkled with the urge to sneeze but I held it in. Keeping silent was probably in my best interests.

“ _Please… don’t…_ ” The whisper pleaded out to me and I turned around again. My eyes widened when I realized it must have been coming from a different room. I crept over to the left wall and pressed my palm against the peeling paint.

It was cold.

I leant my body against the wall, trying to get closer, to hear something – anything – else.

It was a girl; I could determine that much.

Her voice sounded completely broken, and I heard her sob once before I heard the sharp, unmistakable crack of a palm connecting with skin.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch,” a male voice spat. My jaw dropped and I reefed away from the wall as I heard the girl let out a scream. My hand came to my mouth and I shoved my fist between my teeth to cover up the sounds wanting to release from my throat.

I was held prisoner as all I could do was listen to that man take advantage of that girl.

She didn’t sound any older than me.

I couldn’t escape. I tried to block my ears as tears streamed down my face as I listened to him _rape_ her. He violated her. He ignored her weak screams for help and I could feel the floor vibrating at my feet intermittently as he thrust inside her.

There was the sound of another slap, before she suddenly went silent. The thumping continued and I knew that she had been knocked out. But the man wasn’t stopping anytime soon.

My eyes squeezed tight in horror as I listened to him grunt out through his climax. He was too loud for me to block out.

I cowered in the opposite corner of the room as possibilities filled my mind.

Because let’s be honest.

_It was only a matter of time until that would be me…_

.

They fed me through a steel trap in the door. Like a dog.

I got two ‘meals’ a day. In the morning I got one slice of brown bread and a glass of water. In the evening I got one small bowl of cold beans in tomato flavored water.

I usually saved my slice of bread for the evening so that I could have one large meal instead of two small ones. My bread was often stale, but at least it gave me a way to soak up the tomato.

The men had come for that other girl every night. I could have sworn there were even two men with her one night.

She pleaded and cried every night, and those sounds had become the soundtrack to my nightmares – when I was able to sleep, that was.

No one had come for me – yet – and I had been here a week.

I was allowed one bathroom break each day, but it was in total darkness. My door was unlocked and swung open. I had to walk down the hall and find the only other unlocked door, which was the bathroom.

There was a note on the door that told me I had two minutes to relieve myself, and wash up. The note was very clear that deviation from this time frame would give my buyers reason to punish me.

I did not want to know what kind of punishment, so I kept to my two minutes.

I pissed faster than a racehorse, then I let myself have a very quick cold shower, before I shoved my lingerie back on my wet body.

On my third day, a single bedsheet had been shoved into my room, so I often used it to dry myself when back in my room. Then I would hang it up to dry, before using it as a blanket during the night.

My hair was a rats nest and my skin felt raw. I was afraid I’d catch an infection for not being able to clean myself properly, let alone catch a cold for not being able to keep a semblance of warmth.

My days were spent afraid that someone would barge in and accost me, and I often passed the time by counting the cracks in the walls.

There were only three cracks. I had counted those three cracks a million and one times.

My nights were spent in even higher terror and anticipation that someone would barge in. Then I had to listen to the girl next door. Then I tried to sleep. It was often broken, and left me more tired than when I’d begun.

I knew that at some point, my body would give up at the exact wrong moment, and I’d be helpless to defend myself.

_Maybe that’s what they’re waiting for…_

On my seventh day, I heard the latch on my door unlock. My eyes were wide as I realized what must have been about to happen. They had already come for the girl next door. From what I could tell, we were the only ones here, but I could only imagine that our buyer had plans to expand his ‘collection’.

The number of doors on my way to the bathroom was the biggest indicator of that.

The first time I’d been allowed out, I had counted twelve other doors.

I shivered at the thought. Maybe those rooms were full and those girls were just as quiet as me. Maybe the girl next door had disobeyed and this was her punishment.

I could only hope that I would never find out. But maybe my luck was running dry, because as I heard that latch on my door unlock, my body became rigid with fear as I cowered away.

It swung open and I could see two figures in the dim light of the hall. The larger figure was quick to shove the other inside, before slamming the door shut again, leaving me alone with this person.

They were silent and unmoving on the floor and I frowned down at them from the bed. My eyes adjusted to the light once more and I realized that it was a girl. She was wearing the same amount of clothing as me, but her arms were still bound.

I gasped as I realized that she was unconscious.

I crept off the bed and slid over to her. I rolled her onto her side and realized that they’d kept her arms bound behind her back. I moved quickly to unwrap the ties there, so that they wouldn’t cut off the blood supply.

Then I smoothed her chocolate brown hair out of her eyes and looked over her. The poor thing looked even worse off than I had.

My mind whirled and my eyes widened when they sweeped down her body to make sure the rest of her was okay.

She wasn’t wearing underpants, and I bit my lip when I saw some dark spots of liquid on the floor, accumulating at her… downstairs area.

I winced for her when I realized that she must have been used before they dropped her up here with me. I bit my lip again before looking around. There wasn’t much that I could use to clean her up but I eyed the blanket I’d been given.

I wouldn’t be able to use it again if I helped to clean her with it, but I had no choice. I had to sacrifice my small warmth in order to make this girl more comfortable. She had, after all, just been treated like her life didn’t matter, and there was no way that I could stand for that.

I let out a small sob at the innocence of her face. She couldn’t be any older than me, in fact I think she was probably younger than I was. I crept away and reached up for the sheet, pulling it down before I rolled the girl onto her back.

I spread her legs and made sure that I was completely methodical in the way that I cleaned her. I didn’t want this girl to think that _I_ took advantage of her too, in my quest to help her.

From what I could tell, the blood must have just been spotting, and luckily, it seemed to have stopped. So, I wiped it away with the corner of the sheet before tearing that section away from the rest of the sheet. Then I used it to wrap around the poor girl to keep her warm.

I crouched down, managing to lift the small girl and drag her over to the bed where I lay her down. The least I could do was try to make her comfortable in this hell that she was going through, because I could only imagine.

When I got her settled on her side and wrapped up, I sat beside her, stroking the hair from her face.

She was still breathing, so there was that at least. I frowned and reached for her face. I needed to know if she’d been drugged… or just needed to find out if there was any other way that I could help this girl.

I peeled one of her eyelids back to look at her irises. Apart from the beautiful pale green of her eyes, her pupils didn’t seem too dilated or too narrow, so I could discern that maybe she’d just passed out.

I sighed and leant back, resting on the headboard next to the girl.

I stroked her hair out of her face, and oddly, it became almost therapeutic for me.

I wanted to give her space, because she would no doubt be confused and in pain when she woke, but on the other hand, it had been weeks since I’d been in anyone’s presence.

I’d been alone long enough to make a girl go crazy with her own thoughts. So, as much as I wanted to give her some space, my body wouldn’t let me, and instead I curled up to myself on the other side of the bed.

I held my knees to my chest in an effort to keep warm seeing as she now had my blanket. Then I fell asleep like that. I could only hope that she’d be awake when I next woke up, so that I could have some semblance of company.

For now, I was satisfied that I’d helped the girl to the best of my ability.

.

**Nurse Lauren.**


	8. 6 pt1

**CHAPTER SIX (Part 1)**

**Lucas**

Monday morning couldn’t have come soon enough.

After the debacle on Saturday night with Juice, that disturbing scream at the strip club, and then spending all Sunday training for my fight that night, I was spent.

Of course, I’d won my fight, but that was the furthest thing from my mind right then. My opponent had been a guy who’d been on the scene for less than a month, and for some reason seemed to think he could take my place at the top. A place I’d worked hard and busted my ass for.

The only person who could take my place would be Juice, but as we all know, he doesn’t fight anymore.

So, needless to say, I kicked that kids ass and taught him a thing or two about respect in the process. He wouldn’t be so cocky to shit talk the big guns from now on until he at least earnt himself some street cred.

That was practically rule one of the underground: You run your mouth, you get beat down.

Right now, though, I wasn’t focusing on that fight. Sure I’d won a heaping pile of cash from it, but I was more curious about that unidentified scream. The alley behind the back of Manny’s club was deserted. The only shit back there included piles of cardboard boxes with shipping addresses on them.

From the mess of different colored faux feathers left insides, I could only assume that the boxes had held feather boas and other miscellaneous props that Manny would be able to use with his girls on stage.

There were a few tire marks on the ground and I gave a wistful look at the direction that they pointed. The only reason you burnt rubber in an alley like this was if you were trying to make a speedy getaway.

_Maybe Manny’s just having some trouble with peeping Toms,_ I thought. It wouldn’t have been the first time. He’d have run them out of his place quick smart, so that would explain the tracks.

Apart from the boxes, the only other things in the alley were an overflowing dumpster, and a few empty syringes littered near the wall at the end of the alleyway.

Nothing out of the ordinary for this end of town.

If I had to make assumptions then it was probably in this alley that his girls were shooting up. I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath before frowning.

“You’re going out of your mind,” I muttered to myself. That scream could have been anything. If anything, one of Manny’s girls was just getting it _good_ from one of his customers. I felt like I was grasping at straws.

I didn’t know why I was so attached to the idea that something bad had happened. Maybe I was obsessed with it for the same reason that I started fighting. This town had shit all going for it, and I had started fighting not only to let my anger out, but literally just for something else to do.

Maybe my obsession with that girl’s scream was just my imagination running wild and trying to go deeper into something that wasn’t even there…

I sighed, running a hand over my face. I stood up from where I’d crouched down to inspect more of the cardboard boxes and come up with squat. I shook my head before I walked out of the alley.

I went around to the front of house and pushed open the door. It was early, so there weren’t many customers in.

Manny had decided to start a ‘breakfast buffet’ deal to try and draw in a crowd, but people had jobs. They couldn’t afford to take time off work at ten in the morning just to eat a buffet breakfast while watching a few second-rate strippers dance semi-nude in front of them.

And Manny knew that, which was why he saved his best dancers for the night shift. The only women dancing at this time of day were the ones too ugly for the night shift. I knew it was rude to be so harsh, but it was kind of the truth. He only had two dancers working and one waitress, and all three were middle aged.

You couldn’t blame the customers for preferring the younger models to dance for them and give them lap dances. I realize that these women needed to make a living somehow, but at the end of the day, men came here to fulfill fantasies and usually to get away from their wives.

They wanted something different, and in a town as small as ours, that meant that you wanted to look at young hot women with bodies so tight it was like they were about to snap. Women like that could fuel a man’s virtual spank bank for days.

I walked up to the bar where I found Manny counting tips for the till. His eyes widened in surprise when he recognized me.

“Talon? This is a surprise…” he trailed off. I gave him a curt nod.

“Yeah, I’m just here for a quick visit,” I said. Manny nodded and moved away from the bar like he was about to offer me a seat.

“Well, no worries man. We’ve got a huge buffet that you can help yourself to, and then you’ve pretty much got your choice of seats,” he said. He frowned when I shook my head, waving him off.

“Nah, I’m not here for any of that,” I said. “I think I left something here the other night,” I lied. “Mind if I just check around for it?”

I watched the recognition seep into his features and he nodded.

“Oh, yes, of course. No one has used that private room since you were in there, so hopefully you’ll be able to find whatever you lost.”

I nodded, thanking him before I walked off in the direction of the private rooms. I checked over my shoulder to see if Manny was still watching me, but he wasn’t, so I grinned to myself and slipped past the door to the room I’d been using the other night and crept further down the hall.

All of the private rooms seemed vacant, which was better for me. I didn’t need to walk in on anyone getting it on at ten in the morning. Some things you just couldn’t unsee.

I snooped through the doorways, trying to look for… well, actually, I didn’t know what the hell I was looking for. Screams didn’t just leave a trace.

_You’re a fucking idiot_ , I told myself. I shook my head and looked around for any kind of suspicious activity but who was I kidding. I was rifling through a sleazy strip club searching for who the fuck knows what.

Besides the residue of lines of coke, some molly paraphernalia among other things, I couldn’t see anything that would be ‘out of the ordinary’ for a place like this.

I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I was grasping at straws here.

I shook my head and got up, walking back out. I ran a hand through my hair as I walked back past the bar.

“Find what you were looking for?” Manny asked from somewhere to my left. I turned my head and shook it with a frown and a fake shrug.

“Nah, man. I must’ve left in Juice’s car or something,” I said lamely. Manny pursed his lips and nodded mutely as I waved him off and walked out.

My head was spinning but I knew that I was chasing the ghost of a problem right now. I gave the strip club one more look over my shoulder before I turned back to my bike.

I hadn’t found anything that would prove my point or ease my conscience about that girl’s scream, but I also couldn’t shake that voice in the back of my head that was telling me I missed something… anything…

I sighed, shoving my helmet on and revving the engine of my bike.

I needed to get out of here and clear my head.

Plus, I was late for my morning session with Reggie.

_Fuck_ , I groaned inwardly. He was gonna kick my ass.

.

**Thoughts on what Lucas is trying to find?**


	9. 6 pt2

**CHAPTER SIX (Part 2)**

**Lauren**

I rolled over in my bed with a slight groan. I frowned beneath closed lids when I realized that the mattress was cold. And empty.

I sat up in a hurry and cast my eyes around the room.

She was standing in the corner, staring at me with wide eyes and a thin frown. Behind those eyes though, I could see it.

She was scared shitless. As much as I had been for the past however long.

Her brown eyes were unblinking and unwavering as she stared me down. I knew why. She didn’t want to take any chances with me and I understood that. It hurt my feelings slightly, but I had to remind myself that she didn’t know that I wasn’t the enemy.

She didn’t know that it had been me who helped her and cleaned her up and made sure she was as okay as anyone could be in our current situation.

But I couldn’t expect her to understand those things when she didn’t remember them happening.

All she knew was that she’d woken up in an unfamiliar place, with nothing but a flimsy sheet wrapped around her, a stranger sharing her bed, and no doubt pain in her lower region.

I sighed and ran a hand over my face.

There was little light coming into the room, between the door slammed shut, the power being cut, and the boarded-up windows, this girl was probably at the height of her terror. I wasn’t sure how to approach the situation.

I didn’t want her to become violent out of fear, and I didn’t want the possibility of her hurting me or herself. I also didn’t want her to become hysterical or inconsolable, because we didn’t need any more attention drawn to us.

This was the first contact I’d had with anyone in so long, and I didn’t want it to end badly. If anything, this was a chance for us to stick together, but she’d so obviously ended up in this bedroom under different circumstances than me.

I wanted to know more, but I didn’t want to push her.

The girl hadn’t moved from her spot in the time that it had taken me to have my inner monologue. Said inner speech was only interrupted when I heard the tell-tale click and slide of the trap door.

Then a plate of bread and water was pushed through the flap.

Our eyes both tore to the plate, before the girl looked back at me with a desperate stare. Her eyes were wide and her mouth tipped open slightly. I sighed, ignoring the rumble in my stomach at the sight of food.

I waved her towards the food. Maybe my willingness to share and let her have the meal might earn me some trust from her. Then again, maybe not.

I watched the girl pounce on the plate before turning around so that she could keep one eye on me while she ate.

“You might want to slow down,” I whispered. The girl eyed me curiously, as if in disbelief that I’d actually spoken.

She took a moment to swallow her mouthful before she looked up at me with those big brown doe eyes.

“What do you mean?” came her low reply. I pursed my lips and shrugged.

“They won’t give us much to eat. You’re going to want to savor it.”

The girl took in my words before nodding in understanding. I watched as she began to tear small pieces from her slice of bread and chew them slowly. She sent me a thankful smile, but it was small, and it did nothing to hide the hunger in her eyes.

My stomach gurgled again and I brought my knees to my chest, trying to ignore it. I looked down at my feet, trying to ignore the pain in my midsection. Then I felt the bed dip slightly.

I looked up only to see the other girl perched on the mattress. She looked like she wanted to run away at any given moment but also looked surprised, as if she had had no intention of taking a step closer to me as a stranger.

She held her hand out slightly.

In it, she clutched her half-eaten piece of bread. She held the cup of water in the other. She held them out to me slightly and I looked up at her.

“No, it’s okay. I ate yesterday. You need it more than I do… especially after last night…” I trailed off.

The girl frowned and I watched tears well in her eyes slightly at the mention of what had been done to her. She shook her head but still held the food out to me.

“Please just take it. I’ll feel incredibly guilty if I eat everything while you get none,” she whispered. I analyzed the sad look in her eyes before I nodded slightly. I reached out to her trembling hands and took the bread and water.

She used her now empty hands to adjust the sheet covering her body.

I took a sip of the water before tearing a small piece of the bread. Then I dipped it in the water to make it go further, before I guzzled the soggy mess.

Sure, it might have tasted like actual shit, but I didn’t care as long as it made me feel fuller.

The girl watched me carefully, but her eyes still looked hungry so I sat the bread and water between us. She gave me a thankful look before we took turns dipping our torn up bread in the water.

When we finished, she looked forlornly at the flap in the door, as if she could materialize another meal for us.

But of course, no such luck. The flap remained locked and closed.

I leant my shoulders against the headrest of the bed and looked at the girl. I didn’t think she’d appreciate the ‘first move’ from me in terms of conversation, so I resigned myself to simply waiting until she was ready.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair but she didn’t move from where she was perched. She looked highly uncomfortable, but there wasn’t really anything I could do make her any more comfortable. She did, after all, already have my sheet.

I gave her a curious glance and she finally turned to look at me.

“So…,” she began. “How long have you been here?”

I pursed my lips and shrugged.

“Don’t know for sure. They don’t really keep clocks lying around,” I said, my voice low.

The girl frowned. “Ballpark?” she asked.

I paused, trying to think clearly about it. “A little over a week, I guess,” I said. “Before that, though? I couldn’t tell you.”

The girl frowned, obviously confused by my answer.

“How many girls were in here with you before me?”

I pursed my lips, shaking my head slightly. “You’re the first.”

The girl looked troubled. “And have they… I mean have you been…?” she trailed off with raised eyebrows at me and I sighed.

“Raped?” I guessed. The girl winced at the word before giving a slight nod.

I shook my head.

“I was sold as a virgin. My guess is they’re saving me for someone… _special_ ,” I said, my voice bitter.

“Sold?” she clarified. I frowned, nodding slightly. I shrugged.

“Dunno what happened,” I whispered. “Was walking home from work one night, got jumped and somehow woke up in the back of a plane drugged out of my mind. Was bound and blindfolded and sold in a warehouse not too long after that. Then ended up here.”

The girl’s lips were wide open in horror and her eyes had actual tears in them. I frowned. _Had the same thing not happened to her? Where did this girl even come from?_

“From the look on your face I’d say that that was the good news you were hoping for,” I tried to joke, but my tone was lost on my whisper. The girl gulped and scooted back on the bed so that she could sit across from me properly.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. I could see the struggle in her eyes. She didn’t know whether to tell me about the horrific events that led to her bleeding out on my bedroom floor last night.

Curiosity must have won out, because she parted her lips to speak only moments later.

“I was a dancer,” she whispered. I nodded. I had guess from her body that she’d been toned in some discipline of athleticism.

“First day on the job,” she continued, her voice full of unshed tears. “Then as I was wrapping up my shift with one last private dance, he just came onto me…”

I frowned. _What kind of dancer did private sessions….?_ My eyes widened as the realization hit me.

Shit. She was an _exotic_ dancer. Strip joints and sex workers and porn sets and all that entailed in the entertainment industry.

She took one look at the recognition in my eyes and sighed heavily.

“I know its not an industry with the cleanest track record,” she said, “But I was just trying to pay off some student loans.”

I nodded. I could understand that. That was, after all, what I’d been doing too.

“I mean and I guess it’s a fairly stereotypical place for a girl to end up when her childhood was a succession of moving from foster home to foster home,” she whispered bitterly. “I didn’t want to fall into that stereotype, but I couldn’t find any other work that was willing to give me as many shifts and pay big, you know? I thought that if I could get in there, then I could pay off those loans really quickly…”

I nodded. She was preaching to the choir. Foster homes? I guess that made sense now. Her wary gaze and unwillingness to trust me at first was more than just common sense for her, it was her survival instincts kicking in.

“Anyway. The guy got handsy,” she whispered. “I thought I’d yelled myself hoarse when he ripped everything off me in that room and started having his way with me.” Her voice was full of disgust and I totally understood everything she was saying.

“But, no one came….” She trailed off. “No one came for me in time… and then I passed out and woke up here…”

I nodded.

“They threw you in here late last night and I tried to clean you up as best I could, but you’ll be able to do a better job when they let us out to bathe later,” I said. “Then I wrapped you up and laid you down.”

The girl stared at me with grief in her eyes.

“Well, I know it didn’t seem like it earlier, but, I’m grateful.”

I nodded.

“So, they let us bathe?” she asked. I nodded again. That seemed to be all I could do these days. _Nod for yes, shake for no. If words slip out your mouth then they can use them against you…_

“A few minutes everyday. We’re sharing meals so we’re no doubt sharing shower time, too. They gave me clothes a few days in, so I guess you can expect that, too. For now you can use the sheet, though.”

“Thankyou,” the girl nodded sadly. She looked overwhelmed, among other things and I completely understood.

This would have been a lot for her to take in. I mean, it was hard enough to learn it all on your own like I had, but it also couldn’t have been easy for her to try and adjust in the space of one day.

The thing I was most worried about was how this new arrangement was going to change the way that the men acted. They had had no qualms about taking this girl against her will, and with my knowledge of what they did to that girl in the other room… well, what did that mean for tonight?

Would they come for her and not me? Would they force me to watch? Would they come for us both? Would they even come at all?

Nothing was for certain and I hated being kept in the dark.

This shit was scary, but at least now I had someone to huddle up to at night and cringe when things got to be too much. Which, let’s be honest, _all_ of this was too much.

The girl broke me from my reverie by taking my hand and holding it. I looked up, shocked, and she smiled sadly down at me while she clutched my hand.

“I’m Faye, by the way,” she said, quietly.

I gave her a small nod, not giving away a smile yet. _Faye._ It was a pretty name, and it suited her. It was a little exotic, because it wasn’t a name I heard often, yet somehow it matched her mousy brown hair and big brown doe eyes.

I looked flat into her eyes and she squeezed my palm slightly in hers as a way of comforting me. I took a deep breath. The two of us had shared a lot today, so it was only fair that she be able to place a name to a story too.

“Lauren,” I said. “ _But my friends call me Luna_.”

.

**Hope this cleared things up for those of you still asking me questions about Lauren :)**


	10. 7 pt1

**CHAPTER SEVEN (Part 1)**

**Lauren**

It was only hours later that our door opened.

After Faye and I had had our tiny introductions slash mini heart-to-heart, we’d mostly sat in silence in our room. I’m pretty sure she’d even passed out from exhaustion at one point.

I couldn’t blame her. She’d been through absolute hell in the last twenty-four hours. I reserved myself to watching over her while she caught some rest. It was the least I could do, and I could only hope that she’d do the same for me.

Despite only having known each other for the shortest time, we had our shared trauma to bond us.

I reserved my time to counting the three cracks in the wall, _over and over_.

It had become my ritual, or even a coping mechanism, but it was the only thing stopping me from dwelling over my situation, or my parents, or about wondering what had happened to them.

If I didn’t try to control my situation, I’d go insane with my own thoughts. There was only so much a girl could take.

I sighed, leaning my head back against the wall. I’d moved from the bed to the floor to give Faye some space and so now, I was leaning against that faded wallpaper. At least, I _thought_ it was faded. It was really hard to tell in the dim light.

I blinked a few times. Among other things, the dust was one of the worst things in this entire room. It got into your eyes and settled on your skin if you stayed in one spot for too long.

It made me want to sneeze, which was not something to be desired in my situation… The least amount of noise I could make, the better.

I heard Faye stirring on the bed and slowly looked over. She sat up and wiped her eyes before they settled on me with a sad frown. I nodded with a grimace.

_Yes, Faye, this really is your reality, not just some horrible nightmare you hoped you’d wake up from. We’re in the same boat, hun._

I felt bad for the girl. She’d been thrust into this world overnight. At least I’d had days to adjust to it all. I’m not saying it’s a good situation for _anyone_ to be in, truth be told it fucking sucks, but that attitude wasn’t going to change anything.

“When do we get our bathroom break?” she whispered to me. I sighed, shrugging haphazardly.

“Changes every day.”

I listened to her whimper slightly.

I’d had time to train my bladder to one bathroom break a day. She didn’t have that luxury yet.

I wouldn’t be surprised if her sudden need for the lavatory was what woke her up in the first place. Despite the fact that we’d only had a small amount to drink this morning, it was enough to make her need to go.

But, I guess she had someone smiling down on her, because not moments after we’d uttered those words to each other, I heard the lock of the door click before the wood was swung open with a creak.

My jaw dropped.

_Were they listening to us?_ I briefly wondered. Why hadn’t I thought to speak aloud before Faye had gotten there? I could have gotten things so much more quickly instead of seeming complacent.

_You were worried you’d get raped if you made a noise_ , I reminded myself with a sigh.

Faye looked up at me hopefully and I nodded. We both stood up, her wrapping the sheet tightly around her before the two of us stumbled into the dark hallway. She took my hand and let me lead her down the hall.

I counted doors on our way until we made it to the bathroom.

I pointed at the note on the door, letting her read it. She frowned but nodded at me hurriedly. She understood.

Time was of the essence.

We hurried inside and Faye practically flew to the toilet. I stripped down and hopped into the shower cubicle while she did her business, and I let the frigid water cascade over my body for no longer than twenty seconds while I scrubbed everything important.

Then I hopped out and Faye took my spot, being as quick as I was. I heard her quick intake of breath as she felt the water’s temperature.

I looked around the bathroom helplessly, hoping there was something I could use to dry myself. My eyes widened when they landed on a bra and panty set sitting atop the sink. They must have left them out for Faye, so I grabbed the sheet and started patting myself dry before I pulled my sorry excuse for clothing back on.

Faye hopped out and I handed her the sheet. She frowned at me until I pointed to her new attire and she nodded, her doe eyes wide with understanding.

The girl was faster to get change than even I had been, and then we bundled the sheet up in our arms and shuffled from the bathroom.

If I had counted correctly, we had made it out in time, now we just had about forty seconds to be back inside our room. She grabbed my hand and we speed walked down the hall, counting doors until we arrived at our own.

I grabbed the handle and turned but my eyes widened in horror when nothing happened. I shoved at the door desperately. _Maybe it’s just stuck,_ I tried to tell myself. Faye stood behind me, whimpering slightly.

I cursed under my breath.

I couldn’t get the door to budge. We were trapped out here. We must have exceeded our time limit, and now we were going to be punished.

“Why won’t it open?” she whispered timidly. I shook my head in answer. I didn’t know how to answer her. This had never happened to me before.

“Should we go back to the bathroom?” she said, her voice breathy and low. I bit my lip. I didn’t want to go back there. It was even colder in the bathroom than in our bedroom, and the door didn’t lock.

Not that any of that really mattered now anyway. If the man in the green coat – or anyone – found us outside our room, we’d be punished.

It wouldn’t matter that I was bought to be saved for someone special – we had disobeyed, which probably gave them license to do whatever they wanted to us.

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I tried again to try and wedge the door open, but my hands were slick with sweat and I couldn’t get a good enough grip. My eyes widened and my ears pricked when I suddenly heard something creak from behind us.

Someone was taking slow steps up the staircase. The floor was bending and creaking with protest under their weight. Faye sent me a stricken look, as if asking me what we should do.

How the hell was _I_ supposed to know? I wasn’t any more knowledgeable on this than she was. If anything, this was her fault.

I’d never been late back to my room, but now that there were two of us, this shit was bound to be harder. We had to share our food, and our bed, and our bathroom time. And now we’d have to share a punishment.

My heart raced as Faye and I cowered into our door. We saw his head before anything else and he was wearing one of those ski masks to hide his features. However, I could see a sinister sneer on his lips, and his eyes glinted with something otherworldly in the dim light.

He was a walking nightmare.

As he got closer, we could see just how big he was. He had a hulking figure, like someone who spent little time outside of the weight room. He was someone who could break Faye or I in two with the flick of his wrist.

He would surely be the end of us.

“ _Please don’t hurt us_ ,” Faye whispered desperately. I watched the man’s eyes flick to her with a predatory gaze over the fact that she’d spoken. I grit my teeth and watched as he grabbed her with lightning reflexes.

Something came over me – something inside me just snapped at watching him place his hands on her and I jumped into action.

He gripped her by the upper arm and I sprung into action. I reefed her arm from his, scratching his arm accidentally in the process.

“Don’t touch her,” I said, my voice venomous.

A hand cracked across my face and I could taste blood as I fell to the floor.

“That’ll teach you to get in the way, bitch,” he spat in my direction, ignoring the small cries lifting from Faye’s lips at seeing me fall.

The man groaned, grabbing Faye again, who shut up immediately, save for a few sobs coming from her throat.

“You little whores just can’t stop getting in my way,” he said in my direction. “The boss told me not to a lay a hand on you; says he has _special_ plans for ya. But, if you ever get in my fucking way again, I won’t hesitate to snap your neck.”

I looked up at him through teary eyes from my place on the floor.

“Now get the fuck up,” he said venomously.

I didn’t question the man, instead bringing myself to shaky feet. I stood before him, caressing my cheek with a wounded look splashed across my features.

The man did nothing more than roll his eyes at me. Then he tugged Faye by the arm and made her start walking towards the stairs.

“Walk,” he said to me.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My feet felt rooted in place.

The man gave me a murderous stare before raising his hand in warning.

“ _Walk_ ,” he repeated. “Before I push your friend down these stairs and break her legs. It sounds very tempting. Means she can’t run away…”

He didn’t need to tell me again. I took two shaky steps forward and passed him, beginning to walk down the stairs. I could already feel a bruise forming on my cheek as I placed one foot in front of the other.

“Where are you taking us?” Faye whimpered.

The man chuckled in a way that sent shivers racing down my spine and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. His voice was like a whip when he replied – sharp and true. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a sliver of pleasure running through his tone in a way that told me this kind of pain and torture on women was what got him off at night.

_“The basement.”_

_._

**I had other plans for this chapter but I guess this is where it took me. Not mad about it. Guesses for what’s in the basement?**


	11. 7 pt2

**CHAPTER SEVEN (Part 2)**

**Lucas**

“I’m telling you… shit felt weird.”

Juice rolled his eyes at me from where he sat in the corner of the ring. He was watching me run through my sets alone because he refused to be my sparring partner.

“I think you’re just imagining things,” he said. “You know, places like that are just weird. They have a name for it I’m pretty sure.”

I furrowed my brows.

“A name for what?”

Juice chuckled, grinning like he’d thought of something stupid. “You know, places where time is like altered. You know how you can get that weird feeling in like… like a beach late at night, or like, driving down an empty highway. Strip club during the day? That’s probably on that same list.”

I rolled my eyes at my friend.

“You know, you talk a lot of shit when you want to,” I said. Juice grinned at me but then his mouth dropped like he’d found his lightbulb moment.

“Liminal spaces,” he said. “That’s what they’re called. Knew I’d remember it. Yeah they’re places where like reality is all whack.”

I rolled my eyes, hitting at the bag hanging from the ceiling.

“Whatever the case, I’m telling you, man. Something about the place just doesn’t feel right…”

Juice laughed. “Has it really been so long for you that you’re pining after the first decent girl to dance on your lap?” he chided. I grit my teeth as I remembered that petit brunette. Sure, she’d been pretty and moved in a way that got my dick excited like I was twelve again.

But I preferred blonde _bombshells_.

“No. I’m just concerned–”

“About what?” Juice cut me off. “Sounds to me like all you heard was a girl getting served some of the best dick of her life. I reckon you’re just feeling a little pussywhipped, dude.”

I rolled my eyes. “I told you. The scream wasn’t like that. She didn’t sound like she liked what was being done to her. The girl sounded like she was in actual pain…”

Juice sighed, shrugging slightly. He could tell that I wasn’t going to let go of this anytime soon. I frowned and looked over at my friend, who was doing nothing more than playing with a loose thread on his pant leg.

“You know, you would be a lot more useful if you got off your ass and helped me train,” I said, gritting my teeth. Juice didn’t say anything at first, just shrugged with a grin.

“Nah. I don’t think your ego would survive another session with me,” he joked.

I glared at him.

“You tryna piss me off on purpose?” I snarled. Juice just grinned.

“Save it for the ring, Killer,” he laughed. Then he got up out of his seat and jumped under the ropes of the ring. My head tilted up to watch him leave, then I saw as he passed his dad on the way.

Reggie gave me a bored look before jumping up to where Juice had been only moments before.

“You still twisting?” he asked. I shook my head with a scowl.

“Not a fuckin’ chance,” I said. Reggie laughed before he took down the bag I’d been punching and instead picked up two punching pads, strapping them to his arms.

He didn’t have to say anything. I flew at him with a combination I’d been working out in my head the past few days. I hadn’t said anything about it to him yet, because I’d wanted to surprise him. By the widened look in his eyes, it had worked.

After finishing the combo with two backhand punches, a jump and a kick, I sent Reggie sprawling on his back. He got up with a whistle and a gleam in his eye.

“Now THAT’s what I’m talking about, kid!” he laughed with his booming voice. I grinned smugly at the look on his face like he was genuinely impressed with the effort I’d been putting into my workouts lately. I was glad.

It was rewarding to know that all this training wasn’t going to waste, you know, besides the whole being-at-the-top-of-my-game-and-beating-all-my-opponents thing I had going for me.

Reggie raised his arms again. “Wanna show me that combo again?”

I grinned, nodding once before heading back into it all. I could feel the blood pumping in my veins as I controlled my movements.

Two hours later, I was finishing up my session with Reggie and heading to the showers. I’d made much more progress in the last few weeks and I was pretty proud of myself. Being in the ring gave me the chance to clear my mind of all that strip club shit for a few hours.

But now, as I was walking out of my gym, I felt my mind become clouded once more.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I couldn’t figure out why I kept going back to that place. I was making a mountain out of a molehill, for sure, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. I couldn’t seem to make myself ignore that damn scream.

And so here I was, heading towards that damn club again. I was in my car this time, because it was easier to transport my gym stuff than my bike was.

I didn’t have to worry about picking Cora up today, because she’d told me she was studying with her friend Roz after school, and that Roz’s mom would drop her home when they were done.

Either way, it meant I didn’t have to worry about being on a deadline, so I was almost grateful for it. I parked my car across the street from the strip joint like I had every other day for the past week.

Everything looked the same – that is to say, nothing looked out of the ordinary.

I sighed, running a hand through my still wet hair. The gym showers were good for a quick rinse and I was sick of going home stinking of sweat.

I was losing my mind about this damn place.

Eventually I’d have to let it go, but I somehow knew I was going to get to the bottom of it all. I narrowed my eyes as I saw a black van roll up the street. They parked across from me and a few spaces down. Then I watched as two broad shouldered men I’d never seen before, humbled out of the van and walked inside the club.

I didn’t get a good look at either of them, but their hair was buzzed short and one of them had a crooked nose.

Something didn’t sit right with me about those guys. I frowned, casting my eyes over their van. The windows were tinted and they didn’t have a license plate.

That wasn’t that out of place for our town, but it certainly made them seem a little shady. I sighed, knowing I’d already steeled myself to the fact that I was going to follow them inside.

I grit my teeth and shoved my door open. My curiosity won out and I marched across the street and into the club, knowing damn well that shit was about to go down.

I didn’t know how I knew, but that bad feeling was back, and I could feel it pricking at the base of my spine. It made the hair raise on the back of my neck. My features schooled into the look I usually reserved for my opponent in the ring, before I shouldered open the door to the club and stepped inside.

.

**O.o**


	12. 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**Lauren**

If I thought the bedroom was dark… well, it had nothing on the basement. I couldn’t tell how big it was or how many of us were even down here, but, I knew Faye and I weren’t alone. There was the sound of constant shuffling of feet and someone would cough every now and again.

I couldn’t blame them. It was dustier down here than it had been in our room.

We’d only been down here a few hours since that scary man had dropped us off. He’d led Faye and I to one of the walls, and then slipped something around our necks. I’d long ago figured out that it was a chain.

We were literally chained to the wall like dogs.

We were far enough from each other that we couldn’t even reach to hold hands.

No one had come down after us, so maybe we were the last ones. After he’d chained us up, the man had left back up the stairs.

All of us were too afraid to say anything, so when we heard footsteps descending those creaky stairs hours later, I’m sure it made everyone else’s adrenaline pump as hard as mine had.

A light was flicked on as three men walked down the stairs. Two of them were large and beefy with buzz cuts like they’d been in the military. One of them had a crooked nose like it had been broken too many times. His eyes zeroed in on me and I knew immediately that he was the one who’d slapped me and grabbed at Faye.

The other man was taller than the other two, but he was thin as a pole. His hair was slowly turning grey and was in that salt and pepper stage at the moment. His face was one that most might assume handsome, however, to me, he seemed monstrous.

The cold look in his eye and the slight quirk of his lips was going to give me nightmares.

I looked around the room quickly, trying to familiarize myself with the landscape and with the other girls. The room was full of lounges and chairs and places to sit, yet we were all on the floor and chained to the wall.

From what I could tell, there were twelve of us, maybe thirteen. We were all varying in age and in appearance – nationality wise – but all of us were stock thin with a hollow look in our eyes. Courtesy of our captors having not fed us much.

I had no idea what these three men had in store for us, but it was clear that the tall thin man was in charge. _Maybe he’s the man in the green coat_ , I thought to myself. He certainly looked like the kind of creepy fuck who bought girls for sex.

I winced at my own thoughts as the two big men started walking up to some of the girls. One of them grabbed Faye’s chain ‘collar’ and unhooked her from the wall. He pulled her up from where she was cowering and set her on all fours. She hung her head in shame. I would have done it, too; I’d do anything to hide my face from these sadists.

I watched as the man clipped a leash onto Faye and pulled on it to make her crawl forward. The other man had another girl – a redhead – and was doing the same thing. The two men walked back to the tall man and stood beside him. Faye and the redhead crawled up beside them men.

“Sit,” they said in unison, and my eyes widened as I watched the two girls obey out of fear. They kneeled and sat back on their feet before placing their hands on their thighs. Their heads were still hung.

I heard one of the other girls in the room gasp lowly.

The tall man eyed us all, one by one.

“Rule number one,” he said. “You will do what you are asked, when you are asked, without question; and you will only get around by crawling unless told otherwise.”

My mind was racing. _What the hell?_

“Rule number two,” he continued, “You will address your handler as ‘Master’.”

I held my breath. _Handler?_

“Rule number three; you will not speak unless spoken to.”

The entire room was silent.

“Deviance from these rules, or any moment of hesitation will result in flogging or a suitable punishment of the handlers choice. Am I clear?” he asked.

No one dared answer him, but that was a mistake. At our silence, his face grew hard and his eyes angry. He raised a finger menacingly and his two henchmen grinned with toothy smiles.

At the same time, they both reached a riding crop from their back pockets. They raised them up, and then slapped Faye and the redhead on their asses. The girls let out a squeak of pain and the tall man turned back to the rest of the group.

“I said, _am I clear_?”

I wasted no time to spit out my words.

_“Yes, Master,”_ I said, my voice barely breaking a whisper. The other girls were quick to follow my lead and repeated my words. The tall man seemed to have a satisfied smirk on his face before he turned to me.

He took two steps towards me and leant down to be at my level. He looked me square in the eyes and was close enough for me to smell the garlic on his breath. Despite how revolting the smell was, my stomach growled at the thought of food.

The man reached out a hand and stroked it down my cheek before wrapping his hand around my neck. My eyes widened at the thought that he might try to choke me. He didn’t, but he did apply a small amount of pressure, terrifying me.

My breaths were coming as short pants through my nose and I was sure that my eyes were wide with fear and horror combined.

The man grinned down at me. “I knew you would prove to be a good purchase,” he said. “They said you were untrained, but I could tell you had keen survival skills. You know what it takes to keep yourself in my good books, don’t you, _Angel_?”

I bit my lip, whimpering slightly as his hand increased its pressure on my neck minutely. The man grinned down at me.

“You’ve never disobeyed my time limits and my rules. You’ve never once spoken out or rejected a meal. You, my dear Angel, are my _prize_ possession.”

Bile rose in my throat at the thought of being someone’s property. But, that’s exactly what I was.

He tilted my head to the side slightly, admiring the bruise on my cheek from where his man had slapped me. He frowned and kissed his teeth in that condescending ‘tsk’ sound.

“Shame your pretty face got banged up on the way down here,” he said, his voice hard as he threw a glare over his shoulder. The other man rolled his eyes and then they turned back to me. “We’ll have to make sure that heals up nicely before the others get here. We don’t want them to think that you’re damaged goods, my dear Angel.”

_The others? There were more of these assholes?_ I thought helplessly.

His grip on my neck tightened once more before he pulled me forward and crashed his garlic mouth against mine. I grimaced as his tongue invaded my lips and ravaged what he wanted from me. He was relentless against me. He even bit my lip.

Then as fast as he was on me, he was gone, and my neck felt the sweet release of his grip. I so badly wanted to caress my skin there, but I didn’t know what kind of punishment that might land me in.

I watched as the tall man stood up and turned his back, beginning to walk back towards the stairs.

“Alright, boys,” he said. “Have your fun. The others will be here tonight, so don’t tire them out. I need them awake and responsive in order to get good money for them.”

The other two men grinned greedily, nodding once at their boss before he started walking up the stairs.

“But don’t for one second think you can touch _her_ ,” he said, his voice reeking authority despite us not being able to see him anymore. Then, the door at the top of the stairs slammed and us girls were left alone with the two larger men.

“Oh, we’re going to have so much fun with you all,” Crooked Nose said.

Buzz Cut Number Two grinned evilly before yanking on the redhead’s leash. I really needed to know everyone’s names; it would make all this so much easier.

I watched as Buzz Cut smirked down at the red head. “Kneel,” he said. The girl complied and looked up at him with fear in her pale green irises.

“Unzip,” he said. I watched the girl gulp before she raised her hands to the man’s jeans. With shaky fingers, she managed to get the button undone and began pulling the zip down slowly. She then pulled his slacks down until they puddled on the floor. He didn’t bother to step out of them.

She looked back up at him and he guided her hands to his boxers. She pulled them down slowly with her eyes closed, as if afraid to look at what was underneath.

I felt for her. No one should be treated that way.

Once he was naked from the waist down, he took a seat on the sofa behind him before making the redhead shuffle forward. He put her hands on his cock.

“Suck,” he demanded. The girl’s jaw dropped and I watched a tear fall from her eye before she leant down. She knew better than to hesitate. I squeezed my eyes shut as she opened her mouth, and then I could hear the unmistakable sound of her mouth on his member.

He grunted underneath her and I listened as she whimpered.

This was beyond wrong. For one, an act like that was private and so shouldn’t be done in front of a group of people. For two, this whole situation was fucked and none of us should have been here.

How did I end up here.

“Stand up,” I heard Crooked Nose say. My eyes unwittingly opened so that I could check on Faye. The girl stood up before Crooked put his paws on her waist. He turned her roughly.

“Bend,” he smirked. Faye’s jaw dropped because he couldn’t see her, but then she winced visibly as she bent at the waist. She put two hands on the sofa in front of her before he face was practically shoved into the cushion.

I watched her body shudder before Crooked Nose unbutton his own pants and dropped them, as well as his briefs. Then he pulled down Faye’s panties until they were at her knees.

He slapped her ass, making her jolt forward. Then I watched in horror as he massaged her cheeks. He aimed his cock at her opening before he moved forward.

My cheeks flamed and my eyes squeezed shut when I watched him shove himself forward. Faye let out a muffled whimper into the pillow. Suddenly, all I could hear was Crooked Nose’s cock slamming into Faye. I could only hear as the back of her thighs hit the top of his, over and over.

Coupled with that, I could hear the sucking and slurping noises of Redhead and Buzz Cut. The groans of the two men began to fill the room as each of them got closer and closer to their release.

They seemed to be in sync as they both let out a louder groan and a few curse words at the same time. Then everything stopped. I managed to peel my eyes open and found Crooked Nose pulling up Faye’s panties. Buzz Cut was buttoning his pants back up and Redhead was kneeling with her head down and a horrified expression on her face. I could see a liquid dripping from the side of her mouth.

Faye kneeled too, before the men picked up their leashes and brought them back to their spaces against the wall. They chained the girls up again before walking away. They hi-fived before they made it to the stairs.

“Better get used to it, sluts,” Buzz Cut said. Crooked Nose grinned.

“The others will be here tonight. Do not disappoint them, or your Master,” Crooked Nose chimed in. Then they thundered up the stairs and turned the light back out, plunging us back into darkness.

I could hear Faye begin to cry next to me, her sobs coming out like whimpers. I could only imagine how she felt, used and thrown away like something worthless. I think Redhead was crying, too, but I couldn’t be sure.

The rest of us were plagued with silent horror as we tried to comprehend what the hell was going to happen to us all tonight. _Who were the others? Why would they come tonight? What the hell were they going to do to us?_

I buried my face in my hands.

Would I be taken advantage of tonight, too? Or was the Master still saving me for someone else? I tried to calm my racing heartbeat as the images of what had just happened flew through my mind.

The Master kissed me without my consent. Buzz Cut made Redhead suck him off. Crooked Nose raped Faye.

This whole situation was messed up. And here I was feeling sorry for myself, when really, I should have been trying to think of a way out.

I knew the layout of the top floor of the house for the most part, and now the basement. Surely I could get out somehow, right? At this rate, this whole thing was a waiting game before someone raped me too. I had to get out before that could happen.

Please let me out.

.

**I had so much trouble writing this chap guys, but it’s only gonna get worse. Who do we think the ‘Others’ are?**


	13. 9

**CHAPTER NINE**

**Lucas**

The club was as empty as always. Manny wasn’t behind the bar and there wasn’t even anyone dancing. I frowned. What could those guys have walked in here for if there wasn’t even anybody around right now?

I was so confused.

I couldn’t have imagined it. Those guys were too big, too real. My imagination couldn’t have conjured up with the murder etched into their eyes.

I narrowed my eyes, scanning the room for any kind of proof that I wasn’t going insane right now. I crept through to the private rooms, and the past them and towards where I knew the girls’ green room/dressing room was.

The door was shut. I put my hand over the handle and tried to turn it, only to find it was locked. My frown deepened and I pressed my ear over the wooden door, trying to listen in. There were muffled sounds coming from inside, which was relief enough that I wasn’t going crazy.

When I heard the voices coming closer, my eyes widened and I jumped ship. I hid behind the door of one of the private rooms, leaving it open a crack so that I could spy on whoever was walking out.

The other door creaked open and then I heard three voices.

“Boss is gonna be happy with this one. She’ll make even and her titties’ll make the customers go wild.”

I watched through the crack in the door, noticing that the man who’d spoken was the one with the buzz cut.

“Yeh, she’ll be missed around ‘ere, too,” another voice said. One that I was shocked to recognize that belonged to Manny. “S’far as I know she’s my only private who willingly lets ‘em in the back.”

“Hah! Boss’ll love that,” the third man said, the one with the crooked nose.

I watched through the crack, my nose wrinkling in disgust at the content of their conversation as I watched the two men carry a skimpily clad young woman past me. Her eyes were closed and her jaw slack. I suspected they’d either drugged her or knocked her out.

Her mascara was smudged around her eyes, as was the smear of lipstick on her lips. One of her cheeks was a brighter pink than the other, meaning she’d just been in the middle of applying her makeup, or, someone had slapped the poor girl.

My teeth ground at the thought of someone laying their hand on any woman. The men started to move to the front of the club.

“Hey, woah, woah! Why aren’t you two idiots parked out the back like usual?” Manny exclaimed, his voice holding – if I wasn’t mistaken – a sliver of fear.

So, he was afraid to get caught, then. I would be, too, if I was in his situation. This kind of shit could get him a life sentence. I mean, if I was right about what I thought these men’s intentions were, and if I was right about what happened to that dark-haired beauty from the other night…

Well, these guys were trafficking these young women. I was almost sure of it.

I didn’t need a degree in criminal law to know that what these guys were doing was illegal and ethically and morally wrong.

Crooked Nose shrugged. “I dunno. We tried but there’s a dumpster in the way. Can’t fit the van in.”

Manny let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t give a shit what’s in the way! If you take her out that front door, someone could see you!”

_Hah. Too late for that one._

I fondled my phone in my pocket, contemplating calling the police. Then I sighed to myself. First off, in a town this small, I doubt any of them would believe me. Plus, half of them were useless and had no backbone and could be paid off in two seconds.

I would be better off calling my father, or someone else from the club who could help me out. But then, I didn’t want to involve them until I knew the entirety of what I was dealing with here.

I didn’t need my father being disappointed in me for calling in all our reinforcements if this turned out to be a false alarm.

In my heart of hearts, I knew this was no false alarm, but I had to take every precaution just to be sure. My father liked to play chess, and he liked to see the whole board. The way that he played the game, though, was that he only played with opponents who he could read like the back of his hand.

He needed to know the ins and outs of his opponents mind before he even sat down at the table. He needed to see the whole picture before he made any kind of move. Which was why I couldn’t go to him right now, because he’d only ask questions that I didn’t have the answer to. And then he’d say that we’d be going in blind, which we would.

His preparation and ability to see through liars was what made him an excellent President, and dangerous, too. Everyone knew not to cross him. And it was these qualities that he was trying to instill in me. So, I knew I’d have to follow up on this trafficking situation until I knew everything and had a solid plan to rescue this girl before I went to him for help.

So, I had already sold myself to follow these men.

I heard one of them sigh before the dropped the girl to the floor, then they stomped out the front door. I faintly heard their van hum to life before they drove off, no doubt going to maneuver in out the back door. Then he stomped back inside only minutes later.

“Happy now?” he grumbled.

“Ecstatic,” Manny drawled sarcastically. Then I watched through the crack in the door as the three of them hauled the girl back past me and out through the back door. I waited until the coast was clear before I bolted back out to my car, making sure I wasn’t seen while the three of them were occupied. Manny could have come back at any moment and seen me, so I made sure to be swift and quiet.

I shoved myself into my car and started my engine. I crept forwards towards the corner where I could keep an eye on the mouth of the alleyway behind the club. Then I sat and waited for a few minutes until the van appeared. I ducked down and watched as they drove back past me. When they were far enough away, I turned my car around and began following them.

I didn’t know who these men were, so I knew they didn’t live in our town. From the route that they were taking, I could tell that they were making towards the motorway out of town, so I decided to beat them there, only slightly.

My hunch told me that if I were to follow them, they’d become suspicious, so I decided to make them follow _me_. I’d keep an eye on them from my rear vision mirror. It was a risky game to play, but I knew this town well enough that any turn they made, I’d know exactly where they were going.

Sure enough, we ended up on the motorway for about fifteen minutes out of town before I watched them turn off onto a side dirt road. I grinned. There were only three houses on that road.

One of them belonged to Gage Emerson’s mother. Another was a cow ranch belonging to the guy who owned the abbotoir a little further out of town.

The third house on that road was abandoned years ago by some old widow. No one had owned it or occupied it since. It was the perfect place for whatever those men were doing with those girls, I knew it.

So, happy with my powers of deduction, I turned around and drove back to town. I had decided I wasn’t going to follow them to that abandoned house because I knew that they would be suspicious of my car. Barely anyone drove down that road, especially to that abandoned house on the end, so there’s no way that they’d buy that an extinguished local like me was simply lost.

No, instead I turned around and drove back to the heart of town. There was someone there who I knew could help me.

.

The soup kitchen downtown was buzzing with those who were coming for their afternoon feed. I shrugged on my cut as I stepped out of my car and headed inside. I knew he would be here, and I knew he’d be able to answer my questions.

The old man simply knew everything, and saw everything that goes on in this town.

And he was always happy to answer questions for a good price. The man was practically the most well paid snitch in town.

Arnold Whittaker.

Jax was the one who’d found him first. He was snooping around downtown for a new dealer when Arnold had showed up out of nowhere and volunteered to give up the name of the best dealer in town, _for a price_.

Jax had sent two girls from the club to his little shack that night and Arnold had willingly given up information. After that, we regularly used the old man to hype up my underground games and such among other things.

The man always had his ear to the ground, and so he always knew how to say things and who the best person to say it to was. Which was why he was the man for the job today.

“Talon? Scouting for pussy or what?” his gravelly voice chimed as I walked up to him. I chuckled, grinning.

“Nope, that’s you who’s doing that, Old Man.” I sat down across from him. Looked like the kitchen was serving Mac ‘n’ Cheese today.

Arnold grinned and toothless grin and chuckled at me. “True that. Getting harder and harder to find a good _service_ around here these days,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Yeah? What do you know about it?”

Arnold shrugged, eyeing me up.

“Might have something to say,” he said. “You got something for me in return?”

I smirked, pulling out a little baggie of pure cocaine from my pocket. I saw the greed in the man’s eyes as he set his sight on it. But then I saw the quirk of his lips and I rolled my eyes.

_So, he was planning on playing hard ball today._

“Plus, front row seats to my next fight,” I said. “Close enough to smell the blood.”

Arnold grinned and pretended to think it over, but then his hand shot out and snatched the baggie from my hands.

“Girls disappearing left, right, and center round here these days,” he said, his voice slightly lower. “Gotta pay an entry fee now just to get a handy.”

I frowned. “Entry fee?”

Arnold nodded. “Cool hundred a piece. They won’t let ya in otherwise.”

I frowned again. So, someone was charging for access to local pussy? Was I wrong about a trafficking ring and maybe these girls were just pimped out now…

That wouldn’t be unusual for a pimp to get his thugs to do his dirty work for him. But, that didn’t explain why they were kidnapping girls from strip clubs, or why Manny was helping him.

“Alright, Arnold. You got any names for me?”

The man frowned and shook his head. “Nah they don’t use names.”

“A location then?” I asked, though I already knew.

Arnold nodded. “Widow’s place outta town. The one everyone thought she burnt down but didn’t.”

I nodded. At least my hunch was right.

“Right,” I said. “So, how do I get in? Invitation or what?”

Arnold shook his head again. “Nah, like I said, entry fee. But, you gotta use the password to be let in. They’re open every night and you gotta get the password from someone who was there the night before.”

I frowned before nodding.

“Alright, so what’s you price for tonight’s password?”

Arnold grinned. “I aint paying for that puss, so, I want someone sent to my place.”

I shrugged. Easy enough. “Done. What’s the password?”

Arnold grinned. “Tonight it’s _Pineapples_.”

I grinned, reaching out my hand to shake it with the old man. He grinned his toothless grin again and shook it evenly.

“As always, Arnold, thank you for your candor.”

The man shrugged and went back to his pasta dish. “Girl better be at my place by seven,” he said. I nodded.

“You got it,” I said, turning to walk away and out of the soup kitchen.

“And, boy,” he called. I turned around to eye him up, noting that he was giving me a grave look. “You tell no one, you take no one with you, and you don’t try anything stupid.”

I nodded.

He gave me a grim look. “Good luck, Talon,” he said. “You’ll need it.”

I frowned, deciding not to dwell on his words before I shook my head and walked out of the establishment. Looked like tonight I was about to get a lot more answers to my questions.

.

**How are we all feeling????**


	14. 10

**CHAPTER TEN**

**Lauren**

I was sick of the dark.

I was sick of the smells and the dust.

I was sick of the silence.

I was fed up with a lot of things. This was not a life that I would wish upon anyone.

The girls and I met the ‘others’ only hours after Buzz Cut and Crooked Nose left us. When they returned, they unchained us from the wall and put leashes around our necks. Then the men came in and were dispersed among the group.

I, however, was pulled swiftly to the side of our _Master_ , where I sat on my knees with my head down until my legs almost fell asleep. I had to listen as the men ordered around the girls into all kinds of positions and nefarious acts.

I was literally sitting in the middle of an orgy.

_How did this become my life?_

When they all left hours later, and we were chained back up to the wall, we all got some sleep to the symphony of quiet sobbing. I could only imagine what these girls were going through and how they were feeling. I was disgusted enough to just have to watch it all, let alone take part.

Three nights in a row that all happened before we heard anything news. And that news came in the form of a short Indian woman creeping down the stairs to greet us.

Her dark hair was braided simply down her back in a way that I associated with _Pocahontas_. She walked slowly up to all of us, turning on lights as she went until the room was brighter than a hospital on Halloween.

Her brown eyes were bright as she locked eyes with all of us. I didn’t miss the way that she flinched slightly when she heard footsteps above us. But the one thing you couldn’t miss was the rounding of her stomach.

She was extremely pregnant, like, I’m talking at least seven months. I only knew so much about pregnancies because one of the other waitresses that I used to work with in Atlanta was pregnant the year before. And, while she’d given birth to a gigantic fourteen pound baby, so she’d been a little larger than most, I knew enough about how to tell how far along a woman was in her gestation.

And this woman looked uncomfortably large.

But, never mind that for now, because this woman was a stranger. And while I was more inclined to trust a woman than a man right now, she moved around the room with ease, making me think that she’d been here for a while. She maybe even lived here.

All eyes were on her and she gulped before she clasped her hands together over her baby bump.

She cleared her throat before her brown eyes then locked with mine.

“Uhm… hi…” she began, her voice close to raspy as she tried to keep somewhat quiet. She was met with blank faces and dull eyes.

“I’m Soraya,” she continued, biting her lip slightly. “I.. uhhhh… I live here, I guess.”

Still, none of us spoke. It was nice to put a face to a name, but I couldn’t trust this woman as far as I could throw her. And, at the moment, throwing would be challenging due to the fact that my arms were literally tied.

The group of us were suspicious, no matter how homely and trustworthy this woman looked. I frowned, looking around the group. Every one of them was either looking at the floor and trying to avoid eye contact with the pregnant lady, or they were looking in my general direction.

_Since when did I become the unanimous voice here?_

I sighed, understanding why she’d singled me out to stare at when she introduced herself. I decided that I was going to have to be the one to speak to her. While I had the most to lose in terms of being punished, I also kind of had the most security, because our _Master_ had proven that I wasn’t to be touched as of yet.

“So, who are you?” I asked, frowning at the girl. I watched her open her mouth in confusion as if she thought I hadn’t heard her say her name. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, no, I know your name. I wanna know who the hell you are. Where did you come from? Why wait ‘til now to show yourself to us?”

Soraya frowned and shuffled her feet like a schoolchild receiving a scolding. I didn’t waver. I just stared her down.

She mumbled to herself a little before she looked up at me.

“I was in your position a year ago,” she said, bitterly. “Except there wasn’t a dozen girls to share the load, it was just me.”

That grabbed the attention of everyone in the room who hadn’t been listening intently before.

“What?” I asked, my eyes wide with shock. This girl was no older than any of the rest of us and she had somehow managed to survive the gang raping that I’d been subject to watch the past few nights?

She nodded. “I only got out of it when I got pregnant. Your _Master_ is technically my husband,” she said, “But only on paper. As soon as I have my baby, I’m sure I’ll be back alongside all of you. at least, that’s how it was for the girl before me. Her name was Natalia.”

I frowned and she nodded gravely at me.

“What will happen to your baby?” I asked. Soraya shrugged, tears in her eyes as she caressed her stomach.

“Natalia’s was sold overseas and she never saw her again. I imagine the same will happen to mine.”

The room was completely silent as we tried to take in her admission.

“That’s their whole goal here,” she said. “They all fuck you without protection, right?”

She was met with silent disgusted nodding. She sighed.

“They’re human traffickers, if you hadn’t already figured out. He doesn’t care who the fathers are, just as long as you all eventually get pregnant like me, and then they’ll sell your baby back to the homeland and put you back in the sex ring.”

“So… how far along are you?” another voice chimed from beside me. I realized that it was Faye who spoke. I was glad to see that some of my outward confidence was rubbing off on her, no matter how insecure and scared I felt on the inside.

My mom always told me to put on a brave face and just get through it no matter how hard it was, so I guess that was what I was doing now.

“I’m due in seven weeks,” she said, her voice low.

“And who’s the father?” I asked. “Do you even know?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s Konstantin.” Her mouth turned into a sneer as her voice curled around the name.

She was met with blank stares as she realized we had no idea who that was.

“He’s been down here a few times, I think. He’s got really short hair and a nose that looks like it’s been broken a few times.”

_Ahhh_. S,o Crooked Nose had a real name then. Konstantin? Sounded Russian to me, or maybe German.

“Did you break it?” I asked. Soraya shook her head. Shame. Would’ve been nice to know that the asshole had had his ass handed to him at least once.

“No, but I know he’s the father because the _Master_ had DNA tests done and I saw the results before he could stop me. He’s glad that this baby has come from ‘in the family’ but that’s as far as I know.”

I frowned. “So, where do you stay then?”

Soraya sighed. “I have a room upstairs. I don’t get visitors often, and I’m usually locked in there unless the _Master_ or Konstantin or Gervasi come to get me to clean or cook something. Speaking of, they sent me down here to do your laundry.”

We all gave her looks of confusion. None of us had been changed out of our lingerie from the past week or so. Our bathroom times hadn’t been increased either, so I knew that we were all starting to feel a little disgusting.

Soraya gave us a sympathetic look.

“The _Master_ got word that an extremely _special_ guest is coming tonight and that you’re all to be prepped and primed and on your best behavior,” she said, her voice low as she stroked at her rounding belly with slightly shaky hands. “Your bathroom time has been increased to ten minutes each and I’ll be bringing down a full meal for each of you before he arrives. Your new attire should also be here in about five minutes while I wash your current ones…”

The girls around the room all had twin looks of confusion and Soraya stared at all of us.

“Well, come on then!” she hissed. “I’ve already spent way too much time down here with you all, so get cracking. Undress yourselves so I cant start on this new load.”

She didn’t need to tell us twice. In moments, the group of us were standing naked against the wall. It wasn’t anything none of us hadn’t seen before, besides maybe from me. I’d seen them all nude countless times in the last few days.

Soraya bundled up our sorry excuses for clothes before she huddled back up the stairs, leaving us all to wonder who the ‘special’ new guest would be. Soraya shuffled her way back down only minutes later carrying bags of new fresh lingerie and a set of keys on a ring.

She held them up with a grim smile and began unchaining us one by one. We took turns running to the bathroom for a well deserved shower, before then shuffling back out and getting into a new set of skimpy underwear.

I was hardly in the mindset to complain though. I was just glad to have something clean to wear, no matter how much of a slut it made us all look. I also hadn’t missed the fact that _my_ designated two-piece was white, like my other one had been too.

I knew that he was keeping me in white to show that I was a virgin. White is pure after all.

When we’d all finished showering and changing hours later, Soraya came back down with our newly washed old pieces. She put them in a box in the corner of the room for the next time we’d be allowed to change, and then she left again only to come back with a pot of spaghetti sauce. She dished it out to us, which we scarfed down, before she then had to chain us back up again.

Not much conversation was made in those hours besides a few inane questions. I had the idea that Soraya didn’t like to talk any more than the rest of us. Still probably afraid she’d be punished for disobeying, too.

But then she chained us back up and turned off the lights with a sad sympathetic smile before she made her way up the stairs. She left the rest of us to wonder who our new special guest was, and what it would mean for all of us.

.

**Next chapter = shit goin’ down**

**Who do we think is the special guest? What do we think of Soraya?**


	15. 11

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**Lucas**

I know Arnold told me not to tell anyone or take anyone with me, but…… Juice practically dragged the information out of me.

“I can’t believe _you_ are going to an orgy,” he laughed, slapping his knee as I paced my bedroom. He had tried talking to me about it at the gym, but I’d shut that down quick smart. I didn’t need people overhearing this particular conversation.

“It’s _not_ an orgy,” I whined, frowning. “At least, I don’t think it is.”

Juice howled with laughter at the expression on my face.

I rolled my eyes at my friend. “C’mon, dude, this is serious. Manny and those guys had that girl knocked out cold. If they’re doing something this shady in this town then I ought to know about it. I’m just going there to see what I can figure out about that girl and about that scream from the other night.”

Juice sighed, narrowing his eyes at me as he realized the situation was a little more dire than he’d joked about.

“Well, dude, you gotta take me with you then.”

I rolled my eyes.

“No. Arnold said I had to go alone otherwise they’ll get suspicious.”

Juice got up off my bed and waved his arm to shrug off my statement. “That’s pure bull and you know it. Arnold is a walking talking crock-of-shit. Besides, you’re the son of the most influential man in town, _and_ you’re an undefeated underground fighter. These guys can’t touch you.”

I sighed, considering his statement. He kind of made a point.

And that was how he ended up tagging along as we drove towards the old widow’s house out of town. The place looked deserted, not even the van I’d seen those guys drive off in, was anywhere to be found.

Juice rose his eyebrow at me as if I could have somehow gotten the address wrong. Either that or he suspected that Arnold lied to me. I wouldn’t put it past the old coot, but something was pulling me towards the entrance.

I at least had to check it out. I rolled my eyes at Juice and opened my door before slamming it shut behind me.

The grass of the front lawn was long and wild and full of weeds, and the front fence was more brush than wood. The whole place looked completely abandoned, but I suspected that that was how it was supposed to look to avoid suspicion.

We walked up to the front door and I knocked three times. I heard something shuffling behind the door before a voice spoke up.

“Password?”

I sighed. “Pineapples.”

“We said no plus ones,” the voice chimed. It was a man, and he had an odd accent that I couldn’t quite place. Like he’d migrated extremely young and he mostly spoke with an American drawl but there was still a hint of _something_.

I shrugged. “Well, too bad. You don’t take both of us then you don’t get either of us.”

I heard some mumbling and groaning behind the door before Juice gave me a reassured wink. I rolled my eyes at my friend and turned back to the door. After a moment, a few deadbolts were unlocked and the door swung open inwards.

“Talon Knight,” the voice said. “The boss’ll be happy to meet you.” I took a step into the entryway, and Juice was right behind me. “And your friend is…?”

Juice rolled his eyes. “Oscar Jameson. People call me Juice.”

The man appeared and looked at us. He wasn’t much shorter than me, and probably only had an inch on Juice, but the guy was built like an ox. His hair was cropped short like he was in the Navy and his nose was kind of crooked. He was one of the guys I’d seen dragging that girl at the club.

At least I knew I was in the right place. And by the bored look in his eyes, he didn’t recognize me for any other reason than that he knew my name, which meant he hadn’t spotted me yesterday. So that was a good thing at least.

“And you are?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as he closed the door behind us.

“Kon,” he huffed. Then he raised his hand and waved in the international symbol for ‘follow me’. So, Juice and I shrugged at each other and huddled after ‘Kon’. He led us down a flight of stairs into what I knew would be the basement. When he shoved the door open, Juice and I were met with the sight of around a dozen girls wearing a range of colored lingerie and in different sexual positions with various men around the room.

There were a few neon flashing lights happening to make the room seem like a club and probably to air the same amount of sexual mystery as a strip club or a bar, but the entire room made my blood boil.

I spotted Faye, the stripper from the other night, and she was currently locked with her lips around some guy with his back facing to me. The expression on her face was anything but joy or pleasure. In fact, she looked like she had tears in her eyes.

I heard Juice growling lowly in his throat as he cast his eyes around the room. He seemed as angry and disgusted as I did. Even he could see for himself by now that this was no Orgy. This was an abomination.

My eyes landed on a young woman kneeling at the foot of a tall thin man. He exuded confidence and I immediately knew that he was in charge here. The grip on the leash he held was making his knuckles white. But, I couldn’t keep my eyes on him long, because instead, the girl at his feet was capturing all of my attention.

She was wearing white, which made her seem incredibly tempting to me. Her hair was a shade of golden blonde and her skin wasn’t too tan or too pale. She was slight but not in a grotesque way.

She was exquisite, and yet, I hadn’t even seen her face. Her head was slung low as if anticipating a spanking or some other kind of punishment. She hadn’t moved since Juice and I had walked in.

The girl who had screamed who had inspired this entire expedition was now long from my mind and the innocent little vixen kneeling at the floor was at the forefront of my mind. She was all encompassing, and I almost didn’t hear Juice when he called my name for the fourth time.

He nudged me with his shoulder as he moved to walk past me. A scowl was present on his face as he trudged further down the stairs. I followed him, stepping around the various couples across the room until we stood in front of the tall thin man. He was taller than I was, and his lips were stretched into a sneer as he stared down at Juice and I.

He tugged on the blonde girl’s leash as he took a step forward.

“Mr. Knight,” he said, his voice containing that same odd accent as the other man’s. “We’ve been awaiting your arrival. I’ve saved the best I have to offer, just for you. And she is ready to satisfy your every need…, you just say the word.”

I glared at the man. He spoke of this girl as if she was his to give away. He spoke as if she didn’t matter as a person. I had no idea why I was feeling so damn protective of her when I hadn’t even spoken two words to her, but I already knew that this was not going to go the way that this man expected it to.

But I still had to keep up appearances and play my part, even if only to get this man to trust me.

I looked down at the girl, noting that her eyes were wide with fear, but I couldn’t see much more as her face was still angled downwards. She was scared, I knew that much.

I had the overwhelming need to get her the fuck out of here.

“Does she have a name?” I asked, my voice thick.

The man just grinned down at me.

“You may refer to her as ‘pet’.”

I fought the disgusted scowl that was threatening to pierce my lips. I nodded once, not trusting myself to speak.

“You may review her talents for yourself, if you’d like to find a seat…” he trailed off. I glared at him for that one. I couldn’t help it.

His eyebrows furrowed at the look on my face and I shook my head, holding up my hand.

“Do I look like the kind of sleaze who’s going to drop his jeans in the middle of a crowded room?” I grumbled. The man in front of me – whose name I still hadn’t managed to know – looked taken aback at my tone as his eyes widened. He opened his mouth as if to stammer but then he seemed to catch a hold of himself. His eyes hardened and his jaw clenched before he nodded once at the scowl on my face.

“Of course not,” he said, his voice icy. “I have a place where you might be more comfortable.” I crossed my arms across my chest and nodded once. The man then turned and began moving across the room towards the stairs.

He tugged on the girl’s leash, making her crawl after him in a desperate attempt to keep up. It made my skin crawl to watch her have to obey him in that way. I cast a look over my shoulder at Juice who had his arms crossed across his chest and a dark look across his face.

He was not happy with this situation and I understood why, but he was going to have to keep a lid on his emotions for now. He was the one who had practically demanded to come with me, so he’d have to sit tight until I got back.

I followed the man and the girl upstairs. She had been allowed to walk up the stairs, which was good for me because I’d rather give her some respect and not have my eyes on her ass as she had to crawl like a dog. It was already bad enough that I had nowhere to really look at her without feeling like I was violating her privacy.

The girl was practically naked for Christ’s sake.

Finally, the man stopped at a door up the stairs and opened it wide. He handed me the leash holding the chain around the girl’s neck and then invited me to walk inside. I did so, feeling like the scum of the earth as she crawled in behind me, before the man gave me a nod.

“I hope this will meet your expectations about privacy,” he said, moving to close the door.

I put a hand on the door and locked eyes with him.

“It’s a start, at least,” I growled, before I slammed the door in his face.

I immediately dropped the leash in my hand and took two steps back from the girl. She stayed on her knees with her head down. I pursed my lips. I wanted to know who she was. I wanted to know where she came from. I wanted to know everything about her, but most importantly, I wanted to get her the hell out of here.

But I couldn’t do that tonight.

This would have to be a long game, and the long game meant making certain demands of the man who had placed her in my path.

“Stand,” I said, my voice low. “And take that chain off your neck, you’re not a dog.”

The girl stood up and looked up at me slightly. She bit her lip before opening her mouth.

“Master told us not to take them off,” she whispered. I almost growled at her, like the DireWolf that inspired my club logo. Maybe there was a wolf hidden inside of me, trying to break free and protect this woman who was practically a stranger to me.

“Well, he’s not here. And I’ve asked you to take it off,” I said. The girl gave a sharp intake of breath before her hands reached up and gripped at the clasp around her neck. Soon enough, it was falling to the floor, and she was left standing before me.

It gave me that chance to look around the room. We were standing in some kind of bedroom with a bathroom attached. I walked over to the bed, moving to rip the sheets from the mattress.

However, when I turned back around, the girl was right there, on her knees. Before I could say anything, her dainty hands were on my legs and she looked up at me sadly through her lashes.

Her eyes were a bright cerulean blue, like a Greek ocean full of glow worms. They were completely captivating, enough for me to momentarily forget what she was planning on doing.

When her fingers moved towards the button of my jeans, I grabbed them.

“What are you doing?” I asked, breathless. If she wasn’t careful, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

She cowered in my grip and hiccupped.

“I’m sorry, Master,” she whispered. “You requested privacy. I just figured that if this is what you wanted then why beat around the bush?”

My lips pursed when she called me her Master. No person should belittle themselves like that.

“That’s not what’s happening here,” I said darkly. I saw a momentary flicker of rejection in her eyes, followed by the sting of hurt as she ripped her hands from my grip and moved away from me.

“I–I’m uh.. I’m sorry, I thought–” she stammered. I shook my head and grabbed the covers from the bed. Then I stood up and held them out to her.

“Put these on. I can’t concentrate when you look like that.”

I watched a small blush called to her cheeks as she took the covers from me and wrapped them around herself. Then I moved to the corner of the room and leaned against the wall, trying to make sense of my thoughts.

I had no idea what I was doing, and what I was going to do next. I watched as the girl moved towards the bed and sat down. She looked at me through the curtain of her golden hair with wide eyes. I sighed and ran a hand down my face.

“I’m sorry for seeming like such an asshole. I’m sure that’s all you’ve dealt with in the time you’ve been here,” I said.

The girl gulped, not saying anything.

“I’m Lucas,” I said. Maybe an introduction would be the best thing to set us off on the right foot. I looked at her and waited for her to speak her name. When she said nothing, I frowned.

“And you are?” I prompted. Still, she said nothing. I rolled my eyes and looked at her pointedly.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Your master ordered you not to speak.”

The sheepish look on her face answered my question. I rolled my eyes before looking at her pointedly.

“Well, I’m asking you. He’s not here right now and no one is going to tell him. So… Name?”

She sighed. “Lauren,” she mumbled, making a point of not looking at me. My eyebrow rose slightly. It was a pretty name, normal really.

It suited her… kind of.

“Well, _Lauren_ , it’s nice to meet you. Now, I want you to stay put while I go and sort something out. Make yourself comfortable.”

She stared at me with wide eyes but then I was opening and closing the door. She had a shocked expression plastered across her features and a question hanging from her lips but the door was shut before she could voice it.

I then marched down the hall in search of either Kon or the tall man. I had no intention of going back to Lauren tonight. If I did, I was sure I’d never leave.

Eventually, Kon came into view. He sneered at me and I glared at him.

“I need to speak with your boss,” I said casually, but firmly. Kon glared at me but nodded and went to go find the man, after instructing me to stay put. When they came back, the tall man looked surprised that I was already ‘finished’ with Lauren.

“Name your price,” I said firmly. The man frowned and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“She will stay alone in that room. No one else will visit her, I want her kept privately for myself. She will receive three meals a day, and regular access to her bathroom. She will be provided with clean clothes daily and she will be allowed to walk around in your garden outside if she so desires. Name your price to meet my desires,” I rattled off.

I watched as the man’s grin widened with greed.

“She’s pure,” he said. “She’s automatically more expensive.”

I nodded. I had already assumed she was a virgin due to the unsubtle fact that she was wearing white, and that he’d said earlier they were ‘saving’ her for someone special. i.e. me.

“I’ll pay whatever it takes.”

The man grinned before rattling off a number larger than most are paid in a year. I shrugged and extended my hand for him to shake. I would pay anything to keep this girl safe and away from the sleazebags who roamed this house of sin.

Then I moved to walk away from the man. Juice was waiting for me at the front door with an almighty scowl on his face. His eyes were pleading for me to allow us to leave and I nodded gravely.

With that, we were out and walking back to my car.

“Please tell me that we’re going to do something to get them all out?” he asked when we were in the safety of the locked car. His voice hissed against the air like acid against steel.

I nodded grimly.

“That’s the plan.”

He hummed in grateful agreement before he punched the gas and we were on our way back to town. I couldn’t get her face out of my mind. She was breathtakingly innocent and I couldn’t just stand by and let her waste away in that place.

Juice and I would come up with something to save them all.

.

**And then the King met his Queen…**


	16. 12

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

**Lauren**

He left.

He just… left…?

My mind was blank. I had no room for words or for thoughts or for…well, for anything, really.

Because, he just left.

I was stunned beyond belief. Most of me was glad that he had rejected my advances, especially since I thought that that was what he had wanted in demanding a private room, but then, that tiny proud part of me wanted to know why he had pushed me away.

Was I not pretty enough?

Too thin?

Too pale?

I couldn’t shut off that part of my brain that was offended by his rejection, though I was glad that I didn’t have to submit myself to any sexual favors yet. My heart had been racing since I’d lain eyes on him, and for more reasons than one.

I was terrified, and I was nervous. I was scared for any kind of change from the hell I’d been subject to over the last few weeks. But then he had walked in.

He was massive. His shoulders were broad and stocky, and if I’d met him in the real world just walking down the street, I probably would have crossed the road to avoid him. His skin was a rich caramelized brown, and his hair even darker. His eyes were hard but had crinkles around the edges, making me think that maybe he wasn’t averse to smiling.

He had huge hands, and weathered skin. His muscles had muscles which then had more muscles, and he looked strong enough to crush me _like a grape_ between two fingers. And they were wrapped in that leather jacket with those odd patches that I had no idea what they meant. I didn’t know if he was part of some gang or if he just _really_ liked iron-on patches but the guy was ripped and scary.

He was terrifying. He was tall, yet not too tall, and while he was stocky, it wasn’t in a hindering kind of way. He looked like he could move faster than a panther if he’d wanted to.

But then there was that _look_ in his eyes.

I couldn’t figure out what it was, because I had tried not to look into them for too long. But, there was something about them. They were jumpy and analytical like he was trying to memorize everything in the room all at once.

His eyes held none of the confidence that I expected to see from a man who _literally_ demanded the attention of everyone in the room without uttering a word. His whole self just exuded power and respect, but it was like his eyes hadn’t been let in on that fact that he was the boss.

They say that the eyes are windows to the soul, and maybe I was reading way too much into the one glance I had held his gaze for, but there was something enigmatic about him.

But, I knew he was dangerous.

While he hadn’t wanted my touch now, who’s to say he wouldn’t come back and take my virtue tomorrow. Just because he hadn’t defiled me tonight, didn’t mean he wouldn’t. just because he hadn’t treated me like actual garbage, didn’t mean he could be trusted.

Sure, he had given me a semi-safe space within this private room, and had encouraged I get warm by using the bed sheets, but that was nothing. I was still worried about all the other girls who weren’t in my position.

_What about Faye?_ She wasn’t going to get a private room. She’d be chained back up to that wall like a wild animal while I had a bed to sleep in. And who’s to say they would even let me stay in this room?

They could reef me from here as soon as he left. Though, he’d already been gone a while and I assumed he wasn’t really coming back any time soon.

I sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed and wrapping the blanket tighter around me.

His name was Lucas, but he didn’t tell me much more than that. I didn’t know if he just expected that I should know who he was – in the way that I assumed the other girls knew him – but I was stumped.

I wasn’t from around here – wherever the hell I was… Everything about this place was foreign to me, including the people. I looked around my room. It was as bare as the one I’d shared with Faye, but there was a second door, one that probably led to a bathroom.

I didn’t have the balls to check it out yet, though. I was determined to stay awake tonight, just to make sure that nothing untoward would happen. I didn’t want anyone to come in and accost me while I slept.

I hated that this situation was making me such a paranoid person, but I couldn’t be anything but in my current stance. It was impossible not to worry for my safety in such an unfamiliar environment. So I took a set on the bed, leaning against the headboard with my eyes on the door.

They stayed open for the entire night, and yet, no one bothered me. Which only left me dwelling in a pit of uncertainty and doubt. I thought that enough time in this house had allowed me to understand the motive behind the actions of the men who kept us, but the fact that I’d been left alone had thrown me for a loop.

_What the hell had Lucas said to them out there to leave me alone?_

.

They left me alone for days.

Long enough for a sense of security to seep into my bones and allow me the strength to feel safe in using the bathroom without interruption. It was small, and as expected there was no hot water, but I didn’t have a time limit to worry about.

The first time I’d used it, I’d walked back out into the bedroom and immediately known that someone had been there. There was a small pile of folded clothing on the corner of the bed. From what I had put on, there were two sets of clothes – just old t-shirts and shorts but I was glad for them.

Then there was the other thing that surprised me. I received two meals – and I mean _meals_. I had thought it was some kind of sick joke the first time it had happened, and that maybe they were giving me some kind of last meal for forever, but no.

And the food was warm, too. It wasn’t hot, but I was just glad that it wasn’t frigidly cold like it had been before. My stomach had gurgled with that first meal, as if I was somehow now not accustomed to eating actual food the way that it was meant to be eaten.

But then I’d felt full and nourished when I finished it.

It had become obvious to me that Lucas had paid for me to be ‘taken care of’, but that knowledge was slightly sickening to me, because it held a promise of just what else he had bought exactly, when it came to me.

I tried not to think about it too much. I was just thankful for the moment for my gift-horse, and I wasn’t going to look it in the mouth. I was also just praying that my gratitude didn’t turn into some wickedly ironic sense of Stockholm Syndrome.

I needed to remember that just because he was paying for me to be pampered, didn’t mean I owed him anything in particular. Especially in terms of the real reason I was being kept in this house.

I refused to be kept just for him to take away my soul, no matter what kind of sick price he had placed on it.

On my third day in that room, I finally saw another face – or rather, two faces. And not ones I had exactly been holding out on to grace my presence. In fact, they terrified me.

They wore twin looks combined snark and sneer when they walked into the room. I couldn’t help the small squeak that slipped through my lips on sight. Crooked Nose – I mean, _Konstantin_ – was holding a gun.

My eyes widened as it finally registered with me that he was _holding a gun_ … but then my eyes narrowed and I realized it wasn’t just any gun. It was a tattoo gun. I didn’t have time to move because Buzz Cut – Gervasi – grabbed my arms and held me tight. Then he picked me up and muscled me over to the only chair in the room.

Gervasi sat me down and then gripped my arm, pulling it out and into the open. Then he moved so that he was kind of in front of me, blocking my arm from my view. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Were they seriously about to _mark_ me? They couldn’t be.

But then the gun was connected and I heard that grind as it started to vibrate and circulate its ink. I felt other fingers feather light touch on my wrist before the cool nib of the gun began to bite into the porcelain of my skin.

I bit down on my lip to try and ignore the dull pain as I felt the gun drag across my skin. One solid tear fell from my eye as I turned away from the two men writing whatever it was they were inking into me.

The didn’t need to use as much force as they were using – that much was obvious it was a power play and just a brute display of their ‘strength’ against me. They knew that I wouldn’t fight back, but they still decided to treat me this way.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and instead my body kind of went lax as I let them get on with whatever it was that was so important that they ruin my day with it.

It was half an hour later that they dropped the gun from my skin and turned it off. The Gervasi got off me and Konstantin stood up. They both smirked at me over their shoulders as they made their way to the door and I cradled my wrist towards me.

They had wrapped it up so that it wouldn’t get infected, but I could still see through it. I could still read what they had written.

_009_

_ANGL_

I grimaced at the shaky numbers and letters. It was obvious to me that Konstantin was not well versed in the art of tattooing someone, and so it was all a little illegible, plus I kind of assumed that English was not their first language.

Number nine. Maybe I was the ninth girl they’d bought.

ANGL. Angel. That foul pet name that the _Master_ had given me that made my skin crawl.

I hated this. They had practically branded me. They’d given me a damn label as if I was worth nothing more than any other common household item. I felt incredibly cheap, and I could only hope against hope that they had sterilized that gun before using it on me.

They probably had. the _Master_ wouldn’t risk any of us getting sick out of fear that his business would suffer.

The whole thing was sick. All of it.

I sighed, looking down at my new tattoo again. It reminded me almost of a barcode, or some kind of serial number. I rolled my eyes at it before I made my way to the bed. Around the tattoo, I had a few bruises from where Gervasi had gripped me too hard, but that was it.

They hadn’t stayed around; they hadn’t given me those withering glances. They’d just done what they came to do and left, and I guess that was the part that confused me the most.

Neither of them had uttered a word in the entire exchange. It was odd, but I wasn’t complaining for it. I cradled my arm to my chest and lay down on my bed. I pulled the covers over myself and let myself become cocooned inside the warmth of the cotton sheets.

I couldn’t handle the emotional whiplash that came with the confusion and anxiety of my situation, and right now I just needed rest.

I didn’t want to think about whether Konstantin or Gervasi would come back. And I especially didn’t want to think about whether terrifying brown eyed _Lucas_ would come back because I had no idea what that would mean for me.

I just didn’t want to think, period.

And sleep would grant me that wish.

.

**We’re about halfway through the book now guys :) … told you this one was short**


	17. 13

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

**Lucas**

I sat in front of the glass, holding the phone to my ear as I waited for them to bring him out.

He was wearing one of those horrible orange jumpsuits when he was marched out and sat in front of me. His handcuffs were unlocked before the guards left. He looked at me thoroughly, as if searching for something.

The he rolled his eyes with a dramatic sigh.

“You didn’t even _try_ , did you,” Jax groaned. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Try what?”

The man groaned loudly again, his eyes wide in disbelief.

“To bring me porn!”

My eyes widened with recognition before I rolled them.

“I thought that was a joke,” I said, remembering his request from the last time I’d visited him. Jax waved me off.

“I will never forgive you,” he carried on. “Just so you know, if you ever get locked up with hundreds of other dudes with no access to something to jack off too…, I will _not_ be bringing you any porn either.”

I rolled my eyes as my friend crossed his arms over his chest and turned his chin up at me in defiance.

“You done with the dramatics?” I asked, bored. Jax grinned, shrugging.

“Dunno. The guys in here don’t appreciate my outlook on life and they don’t really let me talk long enough to ramble. You’re the best I’ve got. Can’t promise I won’t start talkin’ shit again,” he laughed. I rolled my eyes with a chuckle.

“Anyways,” he said. “What do ya need?”

I sighed, rubbing my jaw. I didn’t know how to ask what I came here to ask. Jax could see the hesitation on my face though, and he shook his head knowingly.

“Alright, we’ll start small then. What have you been up to? Juice laid ya out again or what?”

I sneered at my friend, remembering our last conversation. “Absolutely not. Dude’s gonna get his ass kicked next time he steps into my ring.”

Juice whistled in appreciation and grinned. “So what, then? You been chasin’ any tail?”

My eyebrows rose. “Kind of…” I trailed off. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

Jax frowned, though he seemed intrigued. “What? She underage or something?”

I shook my head. “No. Nothing as simple as that.”

There was a beat of silence between us before Jax’s eyebrows rose and his jaw dropped.

“You’re gay?” he said, his voice full of shock. “Dude, I mean I kind of assumed because like who else would wanna get up close with another guys junk in the ring but like I kind of never thought you’d admit that about yourself–”

“I am not gay,” I said, rolling my eyes in exasperation before I gave Jax a pointed look. He grinned wickedly back at me and I resisted the urge to flip him off. What an asshole.

“No. I’m not gay,” I repeated through gritted teeth. This was not the first time that Jax had said this to me. I knew that it was his way of breaking the ice with me and getting me to open up about my _real_ problems. It had nothing to do with me have a gay panic, and more with me being pissed off about Jax’s sarcasm. “I’m just… I need to ask you a question.”

Jax grinned. “Shoot.”

I sighed. “There’s this girl… and, she’s in kind of a shit situation right now…”

Jax narrowed his eyes, leaning in closer to me despite the glass window between us.

“And…?”

I sighed. How the hell was I supposed to say this? I didn’t even know how to explain what was going on with her. I didn’t know how to tell Jax that I’d only been in this girls presence for like twenty minutes max, and in that time I’d rejected a blowjob from her.

But there was just something about her that made me want to lay down my life for her protection.

I couldn’t put my finger on it but she was enchanting. To the point where I was questioning whether she was an angel sent from heaven. She certainly looked like one with her pale skin and golden hair. And those big sky blue eyes that looked as if they’d been plucked from sea glass.

She was enthralling. How the hell was I supposed to explain her situation to Jax?’

_Like, hey there’s this girl who I’ve paid to be kept just for me; you need to tell me what to do._ Like, no. That’s bullshit, he’d just take the piss out of me and ignore the gravity of her situation. He wouldn’t realize that I was literally trying to keep her out of danger. And that there were a dozen other girls in that damn house that also needed my help.

“Let’s just start from the beginning, yeah?” Jax said. “You look like you’re about to explode, dude.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair before I nodded.

“So, the start, then… Uhm… well Jax took me to The Flower Petal and there was this girl…”

Jax wiggled his eyebrows at me and I stared him down with a glare. If he dared to interrupt me right now, I’d probably break the window between us just to strangle him.

“Anyway, she danced for me and then when I went into one of the back rooms to gather myself, I heard this scream. It wasn’t a scream of pleasure but then Juice started a fight at the main stage and we had to leave before I could investigate. So, then I started sniffing around the club and turns out the girl went missing.”

Jax raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head. I wasn’t finished.

“I started hanging around and then these two guys showed up. Twins, real buff, looked like your classic bad guy henchmen. I snuck into the strip club and watched Manny trade off a girl to them and then I followed their van to the old widow’s place out of town.”

Jax’s eyebrows furrowed and he opened his lips at the mention of the house. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? Do you know something?” I asked. Jax shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the guard by the door. Then he lowered his voice.

“Nothing much, just some mumbling between some of the guys,” he let on. I raised an eyebrow at him but he waved his hand for me to go on. Maybe he’d tell me some of those mumblings at the end of my story. I nodded and continued.

“Naturally, I went to Arnold for some more info. He told me that they’re charging locals for a night with girls in the house and that you needed a password to get in. I went along, Juice tagged with me and when we showed up we found the old man wasn’t lying.”

“Was the stripper there? Is she the girl you’re hung up on?” he asked. I pursed my lips.

“Yeah, she was there, along with a dozen others, but she’s not the one,” I trailed off. Jax rose an eyebrow at me in confused. I sighed. “There was another girl there. The main guy had her kneeling like a slave at his feet. He told me that they’d saved her for someone special, guess they just meant someone with enough social standing and money in the town to be worth something and get a high price for her.”

Jax swore under his breath, shaking his head as he started to understand what those girls were doing in that house. “You didn’t… did you?” he asked.

I glared at him. “Of course not. I paid for her to be kept in a private room and be given a modicum of human decency, you know, like clothes and food and stuff. I wasn’t even with her for a full half hour.”

“And yet you’re still hung up on her,” he guessed. I sighed, running a hand through my hair again.

“You didn’t meet her, dude. She was… _something else_ ,” I said. Jax nodded in understanding and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“And you came for advice on how to woo her?” he joked. I rolled my eyes at him. Jax grinned, shaking his head with silent laughter. “I’m kidding, man. I know her situation is a bit more shit than a one-night stand.”

I sighed, deciding to go with a different approach. “What have you heard in here about that house?” I asked. Jax pursed his lips with a frown. He looked tense, as if the guard behind him would come over at any moment and take him away from our conversation.

“Couple things here and there. Didn’t think anything of it at the time. Heard someone’s relative bought the house first off,” he said. “Old Russian dude in here for murder and drug charges as well as suspected human trafficking. Then I heard something from one of the young guys brought in last week that he had gone to the house and had sex with some young babe but I didn’t think it was that important, you know?”

I nodded. “Did the young guy say he’d paid for it?” I asked. Jax shook his head.

“Nah. He was too busy bragging that he’d gone in the back door,” he shrugged. I nodded with the roll of my eyes.

“And the old guy? How do you know he’s Russian?”

Jax shrugged. “His accent’s the first giveaway. Then his name is like Dimitri or something but most people just call him Rusty. I don’t know how long he’s been in here but I was told he was given something more than just a life sentence, and the guy is probably in his seventies. I reckon he’ll probably die in here.”

I nodded, then I saw from behind Jax that the guard was getting ready to end our chat. Jax saw my eyeline move to behind him and he sighed, nodding.

“Well, I hope this helped, man,” he said. “Don’t leave it so long before you visit again. I wanna be kept in the loop about this shit.”

I nodded. Then Jax grinned.

“And don’t fuck it up with this girl, Tal. She sounds like she’s already got you wrapped around her pinky finger.”

I rolled my eyes at him and waved him off before I hung up the phone and watched as the guard came and cuffed Jax again. Then I watched as he marched Jax back out the door.

It had been days since I’d even been back to that house. I wanted to give it some time for _Lauren_ – god even the thought of her name made goose pimples raise on my skin – to get used to her new living situation. I also didn’t want to bombard her with my presence and make her think I was trying to pressure her. You know, despite my original rejection of her advances.

That was more for her own good than it was for her benefit. If the situation was different and I’d met her in a club or something, I definitely wouldn’t have said no to what she was proposing. She was more beautiful than I suspected she knew, and she was exactly my type.

But she needed to know I wasn’t going to take advantage of her, or that I was trying to force something just because I was paying for it. I wanted her to see me as an ally, not an enemy. And if that meant taking it slow then that is what I would do.

Then, I also wanted to test whether her ‘Master’ would obey the demands I was paying for. I knew that he would if he wanted to start seeing fat cheques from me, but I still wanted to make sure he was treating her the way that all human beings could be treated.

It was just a shame I couldn’t give the other girls what I was giving Lauren, too. But, as much money as I had, I wasn’t a billionaire and definitely couldn’t afford that.

As I walked out of the prison and made my way back to the clubhouse, my conversation with Jax was all I could think about. An old Russian guy? I didn’t know how that might be related to my situation but I kept that information locked in the back of my mind just in case.

When I made it back to the clubhouse, I took the stairs two at a time up to my bedroom, ignoring my father calling my name from the meeting room. While it wasn’t a good idea to make him wait, it was important for right now. There was no way I could talk to him with all this on my mind because he would just pull it out of me, and this was not something he needed to worry about yet until I had all the information.

I slammed my bedroom door like a teenager and my eyes widened when I realized Juice was sitting on my bed, glaring at the door.

“We gotta get them out,” was the first thing he said to me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Them?”

Juice sighed. “Yeah, dude. You weren’t the only one who met one specific girl in that house.”

I sighed, rubbing at my jaw. “What do you mean? You met a girl?”

Juice sighed, nodding. “They let me walk around upstairs when I had to get away from the basement. I was half looking for you and half looking for a bathroom to hide in,” he admitted. “One of the doors was slightly open and before I could look in there fully, she kind of just appeared in the crack in the door and just looked at me.”

I frowned. “There was another girl by herself in a room?”

Juice nodded, his eyes pained. “She was shortish. Looked ethnic in some way. Had dark hair.”

I nodded, confused. “She look okay? Healthy I mean…”

Juice sighed, looking up at me from the bed. “She was pregnant, Tal,” he said. My eyes widened.

“What?” my voice was breathless.

Juice nodded. “I dunno who’s kid it is or why she has her own room or what, but she was pregnant. I don’t know what that means for the other girls, but I just _know_ something bad is gonna happen to that kid.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “How far along did she look?” Admittedly, I didn’t know much about pregnancies but I think I could tell if someone was early on or not.

Juice shrugged. “I don’t know, dude, but she was pretty big.”

“So, did you get a chance to talk to her?” I ran a hand through my hair.

Juice shook his head. “She slammed the door before I could get too close, but she looked scared. She was really young, Tal. I mean, what would they be keeping a pregnant girl around for? Is that what they want from all those other girls, too?”

I sighed. This shit was bad. This was maybe more than just a sex-prostitution ring. This shit was serious. Juice already had a bad enough complex about women being treated badly, so that house was like a literal hell scape to him, but this was a whole other level now.

“We’ll get them out,” I told him as I walked closer to my friend. I clapped my hand on his shoulder and he nodded at me. “I promise. We’re gonna save them all.”

Juice nodded and then stood up, walking out of my room. I sighed as I watched my friend go. I had forgotten about wanting to stew in my bedroom, because Juice’s bomb had just been dropped on me and now my mind was a mess.

_So, that seems like the perfect time to have a conversation with my father, right?_

Kill me now.

He was going to eat me alive to get to the bottom of what was bothering me. I would just have to put on my best poker face and try to front like an upcoming fight was making me nervous or something.

I had no idea what he even wanted to talk to me about. I just hoped I could keep a lid on the widow’s house for now.

.

**Some Jax to brighten you day. I know you all miss him. And Juice met Soraya. And what does Lucas’ dad wanna chat about? It’s all so ominous o.O**


	18. 14

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

**Lucas**

I walked into the meeting room to find my father sitting alone in his seat at the head of the table. He had a cigarette hanging from his lips and I sighed at the sight.

“You know you’re not supposed to be smoking, Dad,” I said. “Doctors orders.”

My father shrugged me off, waving his hand as he took a drag.

“Doctor doesn’t know what he’s talkin’ about. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a smoke every now and again.”

I rolled my eyes at his stubborn attitude. “Well, seeing as he has a medical degree, he probably _does_ know what he’s talking about. And also, I don’t think you can call it ‘every now and again’ when you’re still pulling out joints multiple times a day.”

My father glared at me, silently telling me to shut up, and that he wasn’t impressed with my mouthing him off. I didn’t care. He didn’t have Mom to rouse on him anymore, and this shit was about his health, so I didn’t care if he hated me for it then I’d be on his ass about all this.

Cora wasn’t old enough to bear the brunt of his illness, so that one fell on me, and he’d be damned if I dropped the ball. I took my seat at the table and looked at him pointedly until he sighed with a glare and snubbed out his smoke. When it fizzled, I smirked up at him, to which he rolled his eyes.

I had never understood why people smoked. It was never something that interested me, despite the mass of men around me that partake in the ritual. Maybe that was the reason it never struck my fancy. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t impartial to a hit of Mary Jane every now and again, but nicotine and tobacco? No thankyou.

“So, what’s up?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest and sitting back in my chair. My father leaned forward and stared me down. 

He was pulling that face that he pulled with the Prospects when they fucked up. I didn’t know what that meant for me. Probably the usual: _that he was disappointed in me, that he expected more of me._

Well, I was over it. I had bigger fish to fry than just meeting his damn high expectations.

“What is up is that you’ve been shirking your responsibilities,” he growled at me. I rolled my eyes.

“What responsibilities, Dad? The only think you’ve asked me to do for the club in the last month was run interference on an in-house argument, which I solved in a day. Then you asked me to run surveyance on last month’s shipment, which arrived on time and in full. Then you asked me to interview two new prospects, who have since proved reliable and willing to take orders without a moment’s hesitation.”

My father looked at me pointedly.

“I could go on and on,” I said. “You haven’t asked anything of me in the last few weeks, which is why I’ve been focusing on my training, and on making sure Jax is fine in penitentiary.”

He stayed silent and I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“What else do you want from me?”

My father sighed. “I want you to take some damn initiative, son,” he growled. “How am I supposed to let the brothers put you in my position when I retire if I don’t see any spunk from you, kid? I want you to do things in this club without my having to ask. I want you to organize shit without me having to tell you to do so. I could go on and on,” he mocked me. I rolled my eyes.

I didn’t have time for this shit. Every minute I sat here with him, Lauren had to sit in that house.

But obviously, I couldn’t tell him that. If he’d known how focused I was on trying to rescue these girls, maybe he’d be proud of me. But, for now, he was the same as always. _So damn stubborn…_

I sighed, rubbing a hand over my jaw. I looked pointedly at my father, holding his gaze in the way I knew he respected.

“Look, Dad. I know you’re worried about how I’m gonna take over after you, but, I’ve got it covered.”

My father shook his head with a scoff and I stared at him.

“Seriously,” I promised. “I just have a few things I have to sort out for the moment, and then I’ll be back on task.”

At that, I watched his interest perk up. _Fuck_ , I said to myself. I hadn’t meant to let that slip. I wanted to keep this shit out of his head until I had a solid plan. So, before he could question me, I got up and scooted myself towards the door.

“It’s gonna be great, Pops,” I grinned, giving him a thumbs up and a wave. “I’ll talk to ya later, I gotta run.” Then I was out the door before he could stop me. I allowed myself a small laugh at the incredulous look on his face.

He hadn’t heard me call him Pops in years, and he knew I only did it when I was hiding something. So, that was another fuck up of mine, just add it to the list. If he didn’t think something was up before, he definitely would now.

_You’re an absolute dickhead_ , I told myself, shaking my head as I made my way outside and threw my leg over my bike. I needed to get out of here and clear my head. Training with Reggie might help.

I’d leave it another day or two before I went back to see Lauren.

.

As far as I could tell, they’d kept their word on the demands I’d made. I stood outside her door, ready to walk in. The crooked nose guy – Kon – had been confused when I’d shown up in the middle of the day but I didn’t care.

I couldn’t sit on my hands and leave her alone anymore. There was no way I was waiting until the night to visit. Plus, I thought that maybe coming to see her during the day might give her a better impression of me rather than just someone looking for meaningless sex.

I hoped to god that that wasn’t how she saw me, but I figured I’d have to come to terms that that was probably how she saw it anyway. She didn’t really have any evidence otherwise.

I knocked on the door three times before I turned the handle. She stared at me with wide eyes as I walked in and shut the door behind me.

“Hi,” I said, my voice low as my eyes gave her a once over. She was wearing clothes today, so that was good at least. She still looked beautiful, though. Her hair looked like it had been washed properly and it made her eyes brighter than ever.

I couldn’t ignore the dark circles under them, though. She looked like she hadn’t caught a full nights sleep since I’d left her here, which made me mad.

_If someone touched her…_ I thought, my fist clenching in anger at the image of it.

She didn’t respond to me, which I expected, so I moved across the room and sat down in the chair across from the bed. She stayed put as if frozen in place but her eyes followed my every move. The chair wasn’t comfortable, but there was no way she’d be happy with me taking a seat next to her, so this would have to do.

“You remember me, right?” I asked, worried that maybe somehow she’d forgotten. I watched her shoulders slump and then she nodded once for confirmation. I nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips slightly.

She looked terrified to respond to me, and she was wound tighter than an overweight superhero trying to squeeze into some spandex. I laughed to myself slightly at that image, then watched as her eyebrows creased at not being privy to my inner joke.

I watched her curiously. We sat in silence for a little while. Truthfully, I had no idea what to say to her. I didn’t know what to say to try and break the ice.

In the end, it wasn’t even me who started the conversation. To my surprise, she opened her pretty little lips and I heard her utter a few words in that melodic voice of hers. It reminded me of wind chimes. Sure, those wind chimes were a little rusty with misuse, but they were beautiful all the same.

“Why are you here?” she asked. “What do you need me to do for you?”

She sounded a little dejected, as if she’d already sold herself to the idea of giving in to me, for no matter what I wanted. That thought made me sick to my stomach. My mouth immediately turned down into a frown and I glared at the floor.

“I don’t ever want to hear you say that again,” I said. Lauren’s eyes widened as I realized she’d think differently about that statement than how I meant it. She would think that I was ordering her not to speak and that she’d be reprimanded for stepping out of line.

“I just mean that you’re a human being, and should be treated as such,” I said hurriedly. “I don’t want to hear you speak as if you’re below me.”

She slumped backwards against the headboard of the bed in slight relief and nodded once in understanding. I pursed my lips.

Shit. This was going so badly. How was I supposed to get her to trust me if all I did was snap at her?

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. This wasn’t like me. I didn’t get nervous in front of girls, but there was just something about her. Something about her just made me feel like I was going to screw up every sentence I tried to get out, and in a way, that’s kind of what was happening.

I decided to start small.

“I’m not here for sex,” I said, just to make it clear. Lauren’s eyes widened at my boldness, making me smirk to myself slightly. She was so expressive; it was very endearing.

We were silent for a little while longer while I let her stew over my statement. She needed to know that I didn’t want that from her, but I guess it would take a little longer for her to warm up. Before I knew it, I was spewing out random information just to fill the void between us.

I wanted her to tell me her story, because I so desperately wanted to know how the hell she ended up in this place, but I knew she probably wasn’t ready for that.

“I have a little sister,” I started. “Her name is Coraline.”

Lauren looked at me intently, albeit a little confused due to the content of my words. I shrugged, smiling as I talked about my family.

“She’s probably a few years younger than you, though she looks like she’s about twelve,” I grinned. “I doubt she’ll ever get any taller.” I felt myself start to relax as I told her more. I watched as Lauren leaned forward slightly, interested in what I was saying. “Then, well there’s my father. He looks all tough but really he can be a big teddy bear. He’s the President so he has to put on the whole schtick but I know better.”

Lauren’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at me.

“President?” she asked. My eyes widened and I nodded in realization. I pointed towards the jacket I was wearing.

“Club President,” I clarified. “My whole family has been part of the motorcycle club for years… my whole life actually.”

Lauren’s eyes widened again and I realized that she was probably thinking about all the horrible things she’d ever heard about MC’s on the news in her life. All the shit about gang fights and drug dealing and members in jail.

I nodded and waved my hand in the air.

“It’s not as shit as you’re probably thinking. Most of the stories on the news help to keep up reputations but that’s it. Most of the brothers in the club have day jobs, too. Riding with a club is more about your found family,” I said. Lauren unclenched, relaxing slightly and I smirked before carrying on.

“I lost my Mom last year in a car accident. Two drunk drivers and she didn’t make it to the hospital,” I said, my voice sad. My mother had been a beautiful woman in heart and soul. She would’ve liked to see me end with a nice girl.

As I looked at the slightly sympathetic gaze in Lauren’s eyes, I wondered briefly whether she could be that nice girl. My mother definitely wouldn’t have approved of the way I’d found her, but maybe she’d be proud of me for trying to get her out.

“Not really many other people to talk to in this town, either,” I shrugged. “My best friend is in jail for illegal gambling. My other best friend is overseas fighting an endless war with no sign of returning home soon. And then my last friend Juice, he was here the other night with me… Other than that I don’t really have anyone…” I trailed off.

I watched her look down at her lap. She was quiet for a while, fiddling with her fingers. I decided maybe it was time for me to shut up, too. I didn’t really know what else to say either.

“I have no one either,” she mumbled lowly. My ears pricked and I waited with baited breath for her to keep talking. I didn’t want to spook her and I wanted to hear those wind chimes again. _“That’s why I’m here…”_

The wind chimes sounded so sad. I was overcome with the sudden feeling of wanting to hold her and comfort her. My eyes widened at my inner thoughts. I had never wanted to comfort a woman who wasn’t related to me before. This was new territory for me.

Then, she raised her arm to run her hand through her hair in the awkward silence and I frowned as something on her wrist caught my eye. I forgot everything I was thinking about before as I was consumed with curiosity. It was dark and the skin surrounding it was red and splotchy. I knew what healing skin looked like and I knew what had caused it.

“What’s on your arm?” I asked. She immediately dropped her hand and hid it under the blanket. I rose my eyebrow at her but I didn’t move towards her like I wanted to.

Truthfully, I wanted to storm over to her, grab her arm, examine it for injury and then kill the bastard who had touched her. But that would freak her out.

_Deep breaths, Tal,_ I told myself.

I looked at her pointedly before she sighed in defeat, looking away from me and moving her arm back out from under the blanket. She laid it on top but it was still obscured from my view. So, I only did what came naturally.

I rose from my seat. She was still looking away from me, and I was glad that she didn’t flinch as I got closer.

I sat on the opposite end of the bed, far enough away from her that she could be comfortable, but still close enough to see the inking.

I read the messy numbers and letters and a sneer folded onto my face.

They had fucking marked her. Branded her like she was some kind of pet, or like a cow getting ready for slaughter. They had defiled her and ruined a small portion of her delicate beauty. She was like a precious lotus that needed protecting and yet they were treating her like a damn animal.

When I looked up, she had a tear in her eye but she still wouldn’t look at me. I moved forward slowly and reached for her hand. She winced when my fingers grazed over her skin as I brought it closer to me to inspect the reddened flesh.

I was vigilant in being careful with her, so as not to hurt her further.

“Does it hurt?” I asked, my voice low and gentle, despite the fire raging inside me at the fact that they had done this to her.

She shook her head and my glare deepened because I could see through her.

“Don’t lie to me,” I said, my breathy voice barely above a whisper. She didn’t answer me, and didn’t look at me, but her lip twitched in confirmation that she understood what I was saying.

I didn’t hold her for long, just long enough to get a good look, because I didn’t want to freak her out. In all honesty, my ego was singing at the fact that she’d even let me come so close.

Then I dropped her arm and stood up without a word. I gave her one last look, and she turned to lock eyes with me. I watched in silence as her tear fell down her cheek and my glare hardened. Then I stormed from the room, ready to fuck up the first person in my path for hurting her this way.

She deserved to be treated better. I would make them understand that.

After all, I was paying for it.

.

**In more ways than one…**


	19. 15

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

**Lauren**

He hadn’t been back since he’d seen my arm. It had only been a day or two though, so I kind of didn’t expect him to visit me again anytime soon. He had, after all, left it like a week between our first meeting and the last one.

I sighed, rolling over in my bed and wiping at my eyes. I managed to get up and then I made short work of getting myself sorted in the bathroom. When I was dressed and made it back out to the bedroom, my eyes widened and I froze when I saw him standing in the corner of the room.

He was playing around on the phone in his hand, but he was still as terrifying as the first day I met him.

_Konstantin_.

I didn’t even want to imagine what he was doing in my room, or what he would want from me. I didn’t dare move from my place in the doorframe to the bathroom, at least until he looked up and saw me.

I hated the way that his eyes scanned me over and then he grinned lewdly. If he didn’t have partial control over my freedom, I’d probably have wanted to slap him for it. Hell, I still wanted to slap him for it. I hated being looked at like that even before I’d made it to this house – like I was some kind of slab of meat. It was degrading and it made me feel about two feet tall.

It made me want to crawl into a tight cramped hole and hide forever.

“Put shoes on,” he grunted, finally moving from his place where he leant against the wall. “Your keeper has asked that you be allowed time outside to get fresh air.” He rolled his eyes at his own words but I couldn’t help the flutter in my stomach at the promise inside them.

Lucas was treating me better than I could have hoped. He was allowing me a small piece of freedom outside this bedroom and I was so grateful for it. I just didn’t know where exactly outside I’d be going. This would be the first time I’d ever seen the outside of this house, so this was a big moment for me.

I nodded and moved from the doorway, over closer to the bed. I had been confused yesterday when a simple pair of worn in ballet flats had appeared out of nowhere, but I was glad to have them. They were a size too big, but I’d take too big over too small at this rate.

Then I followed a few steps behind Konstantin as he began to move from the room in silence. I followed him down the stairs to the first floor of the house, noting that I was in a different end of the house than the first room I’d stayed in with Faye. I counted doors and stairs and anything I could think of to try and get my bearings.

I needed to know every in and out of this place – _just in case…_

Konstantin then led me through a dim living area and a half demolished kitchen before we went through the back door. We hadn’t encountered a single other person on our trip, and I wondered for a brief moment whether Konstantin was the only person watching over all us girls in the house.

Maybe the men took turns at chaperoning and they actually lived elsewhere?

As I stepped into the backyard, the first thing I did was look around. There weren’t any neighbors, and the yard was in slight disrepair, in desperate need of a good green thumb. There was a set of patio furniture underneath a pergola in the corner of the yard. The table had one broken leg and was leaning slightly, and then out of the six chairs probably only two were able to be used.

When I turned back around, Konstantin was making out like he was leaving – something I wasn’t complaining about.

“You get an hour,” he grunted with a half-hearted shrug. “Don’t get sunburnt and don’t try anything sneaky. I’ll be watching…”

I swallowed at his promise of watching me but I nodded once. Then he shut the door behind him. I sighed, turning away from the house and then tilting my face up to the sky. I closed my eyes and let the sunlight seep into my skin.

I had always been a pale girl, but having grown up in Atlanta, I didn’t shy away from the sun. In fact, I embraced it. The sun did something to me that made me think maybe I had a Vitamin D deficiency. I just always felt better after a day in the sun, so the fact that I was allowed time outside was something that was making me feel a little giddy.

I had to reign in that emotion though. I couldn’t let my emotions cloud my judgement in a place like this.

I looked around the yard a little more, not having taken a step yet. Konstantin had said he’d be watching but I didn’t know from where. I assumed he’d be peeking through a window somewhere.

There wasn’t much of a fence around the house – just an old wire one that had fallen down on one side and was now overgrown with a lot of vegetation. Like I’d said, this place needed some TLC and someone with a serious passion for landscaping.

I took tentative steps through the yard and over to the derelict table and chairs. I picked up one of the only good chairs and moved it away from the pergola. I then brought it into the middle of the yard and sat it down. Konstantin had said to make sure I didn’t get sunburnt but right now, that was the furthest thing from my mind.

Then I walked back and got the other chair. I set them far enough apart that I could sit in one and prop my feet up in the other. When I made myself comfortable, I slouched slightly so that I could lean my head back. Then I closed my eyes with my face tilted to the sky, reveling in the small amount of freedom I felt at being outside.

I could hear birds and the sound of the wind. Does wind even make a sound?

I didn’t know or care – I was too busy feeling grateful that I could relax. Suddenly, the fact that I’d been abducted and sold and imprisoned in this house didn’t matter. Right now, I felt safe and secure and untouchable as my body warmed back to life under the soft rays of the afternoon sun.

.

I had nodded off for a while. I hadn’t even realized I had until the screen door at the back of the house squeaked as it swung open. My eyes jolted open and I sat up hurriedly from where I’d slouched even further.

My hand flew to my mouth as I realized it had been hanging open. I cringed at the thought that I’d possibly even snored.

But I – oddly – was almost kind of okay with that fact. I hadn’t slept that well in weeks and I’d liked to have thought that the sun had something to do with it. My eyes flew to the person walking through the door, and I was surprised to find that it was the intriguing woman I’d met the other day.

What was her name?

Sarah or Sally or Samantha or something with a few syllables….

_Soraya!_

I wanted to slap myself mentally. I was usually great with remembering names, and especially in the time I’d been here I’d prided myself on committing every little detail to memory.

She gave me a shy smile as she waddled into the yard. I immediately jumped into action, pulling my feet off the spare chair and moving it so that she could slide in easily. She looked uncomfortable as all hell in her pregnant state and I thought that maybe whatever I could do to help her out might be better.

She smiled gratefully at me as she slipped – not quite so gracefully – into the chair. I sat down beside her and gave her a small nod. She had a question lingering in her eyes that I knew she was itching to ask, so I waved my hand in a gesture for her to get on with it.

“How are you out here?” she asked, her eyes twinkling. I shrugged, realizing she didn’t know anything about my situation, which meant that she hadn’t been back down to the basement since I’d been there.

I shrugged, then my mouth fell open as I filled her in. On everything.

On how Lucas had shown up and demanded I be given a private room. Then with red cheeks I spoke about how he had rejected me – something I still had mixed feelings over. Then I told about how he’d left me alone in confusion in that room, then I held my arm up to show her my new _label_.

She had cringed at that before she’d brought up her own arm. She had the number 004 with GDSS written underneath. Told me it meant ‘Goddess’ because that was what the _Master_ called her.

I frowned. Looked like he liked to give all the girls a nickname.

Then I told her about how Lucas had shown up again out of nowhere. I told her about how we sat in awkward silence until he started telling me about his family. I couldn’t stop the small quirk in my lips as I remembered how fondly he spoke about his sister.

I could tell from his body language and the look in his eyes that he cared deeply for them all. Probably even more so after his mother had passed – something we now had in common. I had cried the night he’d left, because his story had only reminded me that my own parents were now out of the picture.

Then I trailed off. Soraya was giving me an odd look – as if she could see through everything I was saying.

“He saw it didn’t he?” she guessed, her eyes flicking to the ink at my wrist. I sighed, nodding once. Soraya narrowed her eyes at me and nodded with a small smile.

“Then he stormed out. Haven’t seen him since…”

Soraya grinned. “Have you _wanted_ to see him since?”

I couldn’t answer that one. Truthfully, I didn’t know the answer. I’d only met the guy twice, and not for very long instances of time. Despite his admittance of family history, I didn’t know who he was.

I decided to flip the conversation off me.

“What about you?” I asked softly. “How come you’re allowed out here?”

Soraya sighed, rubbing comforting circles on her large stomach. “I convinced Konstantin that fresh air is good for the baby,” she said, then smiled, chuckling slightly. “Actually…, whenever I wan anything, I tell them that its for the baby’s benefit. They might not care too much about _us_ , but they’ll make damn sure their kids are looked after…”

My stomach riled with that sick thought. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the way she casually referred to her pregnancy and the regular goings on of that house.

We sat for a while before she let another bomb drop on me.

“I’ve met someone, too,” she trailed off. “He was very strange.”

I frowned, looking over at her in confusion. She was frowning, like this was the first time she’d admitted it out loud.

“I don’t know who he was, or his name or where he came from but he was snooping around near my room. I didn’t get a very good look at him because I slammed the door as soon as he saw me, but he was tall and real muscly. I don’t know though… there was something _else_ about him…”

I raised my eyebrow at her in question and she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

“He looked kind of angry. Frustrated more like. He was just completely out of place, and there was a slight hint of desperation in the way he was roaming the hall,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen a man where that kind of expression in this house, so I don’t know what he was doing there but…”

Soraya didn’t get to finish her thought because the door slammed open and Konstantin appeared with a sneer on his lips. Gervasi was standing just behind him, keeping an eye on Soraya.

“Time’s up,” he grunted at me. I hurriedly got out of my seat, sending the other girl a fleeting glance over my shoulder. She pursed her lips and nodded at me, sharing my frustration that we couldn’t finish our conversation.

At this point, I couldn’t tell whether I’d even get to see her again, so I wasn’t even sure if a goodbye was necessary. Either way, I was disappointed because I’d found I actually liked her company.

She was sweet. And simple.

I missed that.

Then I followed Konstantin back up to my room where he locked me in. I sighed and kicked my shoes off before I fell face first onto the bed. I allowed myself a moment to gather my thoughts as my face pressed into the pillow, and then I rolled myself into the blankets and just lay there. Soaking in my conversation with her.

I didn’t know how long I’d be left alone for again.

I guess, being alone was the only thing I could kind of count on these days…

.

**Easy Breezy chapter… I promise the next one has more Luna/Lucas action**


	20. 16 pt1

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN (Part 1)**

**Lucas**

I couldn’t stay away anymore.

I had started visiting her every day, just for a little while, just to spend some time with her. It had taken a while for us to get used to each other, and sometimes we didn’t even speak.

But I had figured out that maybe she kind of liked that, too.

I brought her a few books to read, and after realizing that she’d found a pencil somewhere and started doodling in the margins of those books instead of reading them, I brought her a pad and a new pack of pencils.

She hadn’t shown me what she was drawing, but it was taking all of her concentration, so I hoped it was good.

Like right now, for example. She was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard and was immersed in her pad while I sat in the chair across the room and just absentmindedly scrolled through my phone.

She had been grateful when I’d brought the things for her, and I was glad that they made her happy, but at the same time I wished I hadn’t. I wanted her to pay attention to me, not her 2D drawings.

I heaved a sigh, watching her reaction. She froze slightly – the scratching of her pencil stilled for a moment and I could imagine her eyes freezing in place as she waited for me to say something. When I was silent, she went back to her work only moments later.

Her time spent not looking at me gave me ample time to do just the opposite, though. And she was exquisite. Her golden hair fell like a curtain as she kept her head tilted downwards. There was a small amount of afternoon light coming through the window that I’d forced Kon to take the boards off of.

The golden rays were bouncing off her porcelain skin as she sat mostly still. Every now and then, she’d shuffle in place – mostly just crossing and uncrossing her legs, I assumed to keep the blood flowing through her limbs. When she got to a particular place in her drawing that required more concentration, I noticed that her bottom lip would somehow find its way in between her teeth.

She would pull on it in a way that anyone else might have thought sexy, but in this particular instance, it was more endearing than anything. It was nice to know that something about her was flawed when she literally looked like an angel sent from heaven. When I moved in my seat, she froze again, before her head then cocked up slightly.

She locked eyes with me and I gave her a small grin. Adorably, she blushed as she realized I’d been watching her.

Her head ducked back down and I allowed myself a small chuckle. Then my curiosity won out.

“What are you working on?” I asked, my voice low. Lauren blushed again but then she took her pencil off the paper. She held the pad out to me, but she was looking in the other direction. My eyebrow rose slightly and I got out of my seat. I moved closer to her, taking the pad.

Our fingers brushed together for just a moment but then she pulled her hand away lightning fast. Never mind the small zing that went through my skin at her touch. Maybe it was static electricity? Though that wouldn’t make any sense.

I smirked but then sat back down. Then I opened the pad and laid eyes on some of the most intricate drawings I’d ever seen. There was one of the chair that I was sitting in. She’d managed to capture the right scale and even the rip in the upholstery. The shading and the grain of it was on point.

I mean, I was no art connoisseur, but I knew what talent was when I could see it.

I flipped to the next page. There were several drawings on this one and they were of various vegetation and plant life. I grinned to myself as I realized that Kon was making true on my demands that Lauren be allowed outside for a while each day.

And I could see it in her demeanor, too. She liked being outside, that much was obvious. The first day that I’d been back after I’d found that awful tattoo, there was something else about her.

She’d seemed a little happier, as if the sun had lifted her mood. Then there was the glow to her skin. Her time outside had obviously done her some good, and the paleness of her skin was becoming a little more golden with each day that she was let back out again.

I wanted to make her feel as much like she wasn’t trapped – as I could. I knew that she probably still felt like a caged animal, but this was the most that I could give her right now.

She had drawn some wildflowers that I assumed were growing unattended in the garden, but she had managed to catch their subtle beauty. Then there were some flora that I knew weren’t in the yard, because they were not native to the area _and_ they were much too detailed to be even of this world.

She had one little drawing of an amazing Lotus flower – something that had immediately caught my eye due to what they meant in my culture – but she had taken it to the next level. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly, but she’d made it seem otherworldly and as if it was ready to jump off the page.

I made a mental reminder to bring her a box of colored pencils so that she could really do justice to these artworks.

I flipped to the next page and my eyebrows furrowed. This one was unfinished, which made me think that maybe it was the drawing she had just been working on. It was the outline of a sketch of someone’s hands.

They were men’s hands, that much was obvious from their size and the thickness of the digits, as well as the stubbly tips and nails. But, the thing that caught my eye most was the band of a ring on one of the fingers. The hand that it was on was slightly hidden behind the other, but it was visible enough for me to read the ‘DW’ engraved onto the handle. I couldn’t help it, my eyes flipped down to the hands holding the drawing pad.

I could see my DireWolves ring on my finger, then I frowned slightly. The thumb of the right hand in the sketch had the same scar that I did. I’d sliced it open when I was ten when I’d been trying to carve a pumpkin for Halloween.

I had no doubt in my mind that Lauren had been drawing my hands. Which, blew my mind. She had to have had a keen eye to be able to pick up on that kind of detail from so far away.

I closed the book and looked up at her. She was watching me intently with her knees hugged to her chest. She rested her chin on the top as her arms wrapped around her shins. There was a curiosity hidden in the depths of her eyes, but her brows were furrowed as if slightly embarrassed or wary that I was looking at the fruits of her hard work.

I raised an eyebrow at her with a slight grin.

“These are beautiful,” I managed to say, my voice still low and slightly raspy from the shock of seeing my own hands staring back at me. Lauren blushed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she nodded at me slightly in a way of thanks.

I couldn’t help it. I sent her the full force of my grin, to which she blushed harder and turned away from me, leaning back against the headboard.

I liked that I could make her blushed, though she needn’t feel embarrassed about her art. It was beautiful.

Just. Like. Her.

.

**Cute.**


	21. 16 pt2

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN (Part 2)**

**Lucas**

She had opened up.

It had taken about two weeks of coming to see her each day, but it had finally happened.

It had taken two weeks of me talking random shit about my day and my training and telling her random stories about Juice and Jax and Cora just in the hopes that I could maybe get her to crack a smile or even laugh.

I so badly wanted to hear her laugh. If her normal voice sounded like the soft melodic clinking of wind chimes, I could only imagine what her laugh would sound like. Not to mention the small blush that it would no doubt be paired with.

But, after two weeks of me spouting random crap for hours on end, I had run out of things to say. And, in sensing that, she had finally opened up to me.

“I wish I could meet them,” she said quietly. I frowned, shocked slightly and not believing that I’d actually heard her say anything. She blushed, tucking her hair behind her ear before she repeated herself.

“You just talk about them all so vividly. I wish I could meet them all…”

I grinned. I liked that she liked my stories about my friends.

“Yeah?” I asked. “Well, maybe one day you can.”

At that, Lauren smiled sadly, her mood darkening a little. She shook her head, making me frown.

“Please don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she whispered, turning her head away from me. I frowned. She looked so hurt that I wanted to go up to her. I wanted to sit beside her and show her some comfort. But, as much as we’d become comfortable in each other’s presence over the past few weeks, I knew that that would send her back in the other direction if I tried it.

Then I watched it as she shut down and suddenly, my elation that she’d chosen to speak was overtaken with my annoyance with myself that I’d opened my damn mouth and said the wrong thing.

I sighed as I watched her turn away from me.

We wouldn’t get anywhere further tonight, and as much as I wanted to shake her shoulders just to reassure her that I’d get her out and she _would_ get to meet my friends, tonight wasn’t the night.

So, I rose from my chair and made for the door. I gave Lauren a look over my shoulder as I opened the door.

“Try to sleep well,” I told her softly as I watched her pull the covers over her body. She looked up at me from where she lay and nodded once before she rolled over, giving me her back. I sighed, running a hand through my hair before I shut the door behind me.

I just had to fucking say the wrong thing, didn’t I?

.

I’d been nervous to visit her again after she’d shut down on me. I’d felt like shit for the rest of that day, but it hadn’t stopped me from coming back the day after.

I didn’t know what it was about her. It was like she had some kind of magnetic pull over me and that was what practically pulled me back to her. It was like she was the earth and her gravitational pull had a hold of me and it was too strong.

So, when I made it up to her room that afternoon, I was surprised to find myself wary of knocking on the door. I shook my head, annoyed at myself. I hadn’t known that what I’d said would sound like an empty promise to her, but after rethinking about our short conversation later last night, I was kicking myself at my ignorance.

And yet, I was here at her door again.

I knew it might be awkward to try and be with her again, but I couldn’t stop myself from coming back. I was annoyed at myself because I knew that that one slipup would cost me all that time of trying to make her comfortable around me.

My hand rose and knocked on the door. There wasn’t any reply from the other side, but then again, there never was. I turned the handle and pushed the door open. I frowned when I peered inside only to find the room empty.

I was about to walk back downstairs to demand from Kon where she was, until I heard a noise of running water in the bathroom. I nodded to myself before I shut the door behind me. Then, as I made my way to my normal chair, my eyebrow cocked at seeing Lauren’s drawing pad there.

It was flipped open to a new page, and on that page was a comic doodle of someone sticking their foot into their mouth. It made me laugh slightly, and then I heard the bathroom door open behind me.

I turned with the pad in hand to see her leaning against the doorframe to the bathroom.

She was biting her lip again.

Before I could ask, she opened her mouth but she wasn’t looking at me. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as she shuffled her feet. “I didn’t mean to ruin yesterday. I shouldn’t have said anything…”

I was shocked – flabbergasted even – that _she_ was apologizing.

When I didn’t say anything, she lifted her head to look into my eyes. “I drew that because that’s what I felt like I did. You know… foot in mouth disease and all…”

I couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped through my lips and she blushed. I watched as she moved towards the bed and sat down, folding her hands in her lap. I moved to place the pad down beside her and then I retreated back to my normal chair.

Neither of us said anything. In all honesty, I didn’t know what to say, so I was waiting for her. She looked up at me and blushed before she looked at her hands again.

“I just…” she trailed off. I leaned forward slightly, not wanting to interrupt. “I just don’t want things to be weird now…”

I smiled inwardly. I was glad she felt that way. I was glad that she had found some sort of ease with me that she didn’t want to lose. It was progress at least.

I nodded once at her words but she sent me a look that told me she wasn’t done. She scooted back on the bed, resting against the headboard before she then looked at me. She patted the space beside her with a blush and then wouldn’t meet my eyes.

I was frozen in shock.

She was inviting me to sit with her. That was more progress than I thought I was maybe even ready for. But I moved anyway. I did it slowly, because I wasn’t sure she really understood the gravity of her proposition.

She flinched as I put one hand on the bed. I wondered what was going through her head. She knew that I was paying for her to be here so she _must_ have had some idea in her head of what she thought I wanted from her.

And yet… she was still inviting me into the bed.

Albeit, what she thought I wanted from her was actually the furthest thing from my mind, but it did make me wonder why she was suddenly okay with me being so close to her. But I didn’t question it aloud.

Instead, I moved onto the bed. I sat as far from her as I could, trying to maintain a distance in order to make her comfortable. Then I crossed one ankle over the other and placed my hands in my lap while I waited for her to speak.

“So…, you’ve been _very_ honest in who you are and what you do and who your friends are,” she said. “And, I’d like to return the favor…”

I frowned.

“I don’t really follow.”

Lauren gave me a sad smile and I didn’t miss the way that her eyes flicked towards the door as if she thought someone might burst in and take her away before she could get this all off her chest.

She took a big breath before looking squarely in the eyes.

“I want to tell you about my life before all this,” she said lowly, gesturing around the room. “Then I want to tell you how I got here.”

And then she did. And I hated every moment of it.

.

**You guys are gonna like the next chapter ;)**


	22. 16 pt3

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN (Part 3)**

**Lucas**

A month. That’s how long I’d been visiting her.

After she’d told me about the plane and the auction and being kept in that room, I had wanted to hold her and protect her. But that would have freaked her out.

Instead, she allowed me to lie down alongside her most days. We still didn’t speak much. I had told her more stories about my friends, mostly just updates on Juice and my fighting, which made her laugh sometimes. I liked that. Turns out her laugh was better than the wind chimes. It was like someone was playing a harp softly in my ears.

It was beautiful.

I had another fight scheduled for tonight, actually, but I wouldn’t tell her that. I could tell that she didn’t like my fights. She disapproved of them, and I couldn’t figure out if it was out of worry or just out of a dislike of violence. I’d come to her a week ago with a bruise on my cheek because my opponent had managed to get the upper hand for just a moment.

There was some look on her face that I couldn’t get over. It was a mix of disappointment, some fear, and a little sympathy. Then she had reached out for only a moment as if wanting to comfort me, but then she’d pulled her hand away before anything had really happened.

I had wanted her to touch me. We sat so close to each other every day, but we had never embraced. Our fingers had touched once when she’d handed me her drawing pad, but that was it.

I wanted her more than I realized, which was why it was so hard to be around her.

I wanted her desperately. I wanted to show how much she had grown to mean to me, if not through my words or through my actions, then maybe through my eyes. But she didn’t like to look into my eyes often. It was a shame really, because it meant I couldn’t explore the swirling cerulean depths of hers either.

Even now, as we lay side by side, I could only hear her breathing evenly beside me. She wasn’t asleep, just relaxed.

She had finished telling me about one of the other girls in the house – Soraya. She’d said she recognized Juice and after a bout of jealousy cascading over me for a mere second, she’d revealed that Juice had been visiting someone in the house too.

I’d been surprised at that admission, because while Juice was the only one who knew I came here as often as I did, I didn’t know that he visited either. I hadn’t known that Juice was even interested in anyone in the house. After our conversation after the first visit, he’d spoken about a girl who’d slammed a door in his face and then he’d said we needed to get them all out.

But he hadn’t said anything to me about it since then.

And then it turned out that Lauren’s friend Soraya was the one who was being visited by Juice. She told me that Soraya was pregnant, like _really_ pregnant.

I didn’t know what Juice wanted with her, but I couldn’t imagine it being anything untoward. I’d have to ask him about it when I went back home.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Lauren asked softly from beside me. I looked over at her as she interrupted my thoughts. I gave her a soft smile as I realized she had long ago sat up and had her drawing pad in her hands.

I had brought her a box of colored pencils like I’d promised, but she hadn’t opened them. She said she preferred the shadows that lead graphite allowed. I cocked an eyebrow in question as I waited for her to clarify the reason behind her question.

It was something I liked about her. For as afraid of me she’d been when we first met, I found that underneath there was someone incredibly curious about the world.

She sighed, blushing slightly before she shifted in place. “You were frowning,” she mumbled. “It’s not as easy to draw.”

I completely forgot everything I was thinking about and instead I looked at her with wide eyes.

“You were drawing _me_?” I asked, confused and incredulous.

She didn’t answer me, instead just blushed in that cute way that she always did. She started to turn away from me so my hand darted out from where it had been resting behind my head. I caught her wrist softly but didn’t let go.

She froze, her head still turned away from me. I moved upwards until I was sitting and then I moved to touch at the pad in her hand. She let go of it, allowing me to take a look.

I couldn’t help the quirk of a smile that lifted to my lips at the sight of her work. It was a fairly automatic reaction for me, as it always was, because her work was incredible. But this was amazing.

She drew me as I was, literally taking inspiration from what lay in front of her, which made me wonder how long I’d been spaced out for. The detail was incredible.

I was pictured laying down on the bed with a faraway look in my eyes. I had one hand behind my head and the other resting on my chest. Underneath the hand on my chest, I could see the detail in the patches on my cut. She’d even added in my nose ring. She’d drawn each strand of my hair individually, and the lines on my face, but then I could see the ink running all up and down my arms.

My cut was sleeveless in a vest type way, and the shirt I wore underneath was short sleeved, allowing her full view of the tribal markings and meaningless drawings running all up and down my arms.

I hadn’t really paid much attention when I’d gotten them done, I had kind of just wanted more ink to be showing than skin. I had it going all over my arms and chest and back. My skin was like a tapestry but I’d never paid it much mind.

But she had.

She had paid close attention to each marking and she’d drawn them carefully. She drew them with precision and skill as if she’d known the markings her whole life, like they were second nature to her. They were amazing.

She was amazing.

“This is…” I trailed off, not being able to find the words.

She turned to me, looking me in the eye and allowing me to see through to her soul.

“ _Beautiful_ ,” she whispered. I couldn’t help the hitch in my breath at her voice. Before I could register anything, she moved forward slowly. She placed a hand on my cheek and then moved her head forwards.

My eyes widened in shock before they closed tightly as she placed her lips over mine. She was everything I’d ever wanted. And I couldn’t believe it. After my endless patience and waiting, _she_ was making a move on me.

My lips opened and allowed her in, tasting something sweet on her tongue as she carefully swiped it across my bottom lip. Then she darted into my mouth, quicker than the swipe of a cats claw.

My hand wound up to her neck, then into her hair, pulling her close to me. She let out a soft mewl of a moan and I swear I was turning into a pussy with what that sound did to my heart.

I abandoned the drawing pad and my other hand wound to her waist. In one swift move, I lay her onto her back before I pressed myself on top of her.

I could feel her sharp gasp as she was caught off guard. Then I just allowed myself to sink into it. Kissing her was like riding a wave. First it was slow and methodic, and then we lost ourselves in each other.

I didn’t know how long we stayed there, but eventually her arms roamed over my back where she gripped at the material of my cut. My hands were everywhere as I was overcome with choice. Everything I’d wanted to do to her since I’d met her was coming to fruition. But it was all happening without my realizing it.

It was only when my hands found the way to the hem of her shirt and brushed against the warm skin of her midsection that she gave a loud sharp gasp and her lips ripped from mine. I got off her immediately, taking a step from the bed as my chest heaved.

I’d gone too far.

She wasn’t ready for any of that.

I was a fucking idiot.

She wouldn’t meet my eyes as she tried to catch her breath, but her fingers were on her lips as if questioning what had even just happened. I couldn’t think.

My head was pounding in time with my heartbeat and all I wanted to do was climb back into that bed and have my way with her. I wanted to show her that I could protect her and I wanted her to want my protection.

I wanted her to want me the way I wanted her.

But I couldn’t have that. So instead, I ran a hand through my hair with a harsh breath and stormed from the room before I pushed anything else too far.

I needed space between us. Because what had just happened was everything that I thought I could never have with her. And now that I’d had a taste, I was afraid I’d become addicted.

I needed to get her out of my head.

.

**Lauren**

He didn’t slam the door when he left, but he wasn’t exactly gentle with it either.

I didn’t know what had come over me but I had ended up kissing him. My lips were still tingling at the thought.

My brain and my heart were confused.

_He paid for you to be here_ , I reminded myself. But I couldn’t help it. He had been so nice to me that I’d forgotten the reason he was here in the first place.

I had gasped when he’d touched my stomach but in all honesty it wasn’t out of fear or not being ready. I had gasped because of what I’d felt inside me when he’d done it. For some reason, I’d been excited. Excited but nervous.

I mean, I’d never done this kind of thing before and I’d just been surprised by how my body was reacting to this man. I couldn’t deny that I found him ridiculously attractive. I’d thought he was beautiful since the first moment I’d seen him. In truth I hadn’t meant for that word to slip from my lips before but I was just trying to be honest.

He was beautiful. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever met.

I mean, he cared about his family and his friends and he’d never tried anything untoward with me. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to try and make my time better, like with the pencils and the time outside and all that.

He had listened when I told him what had happened to me, and he had defended me when he’d found out about my new tattoo.

But… he had still come to this house in the first place, before he knew me. He hadn’t told me his reason for coming to the house, and I couldn’t ask him about it. Partly because I was afraid of what his answer would be, and then partly because he’d be offended if I’d made the wrong assumption.

I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, and yet that’s exactly what I’d probably just done.

He had jumped so far away from me just now and then stormed out. No doubt feeling rejected.

I felt a tear spring to my eye as I thought that maybe I’d just ruined everything. Maybe he wouldn’t come back now that he thought I might not want him.

Maybe I’d just lost one of the only friends I had.

That thought made me so entirely depressed and the tears started falling down my cheeks. I gasped in a breath in between my silent sobs as I lay down in the bed and pulled the covers over my head.

_Why do you have to ruin everything, Luna?_

I truly hated myself in that moment. And he probably hated me, too.

.

**Lucas**

I was sitting in my greenroom gearing up for my fight. But, I was not in the right mindset for it.

Lauren was at the forefront of my mind, which meant I was unfocused. And with my reputation, it meant I was losing my edge.

I couldn’t wrap my head around what had happened that afternoon. I mean, _she_ had come on to me, and there was no way I was going to say no – I mean, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, inside and out – but then _she_ was the one who pushed me away.

I could understand her situation and the fact that it made everything between us a little strained and murky, but it still hadn’t felt good to be practically pushed away from her. I felt like we were taking one step forward and then five steps back.

And yet, I couldn’t stop myself from coming back to her every single day. She was enigmatic and I wanted to spend all my time with her. As it was, the amount that I hung around her was beginning to become suspicious to my father and the club.

Even Cora could tell that I was missing more than usual.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair before standing up and starting to pace the room. Lauren had to be scared. She had to be. There was no way she could go through what she’d been through and then not be scared. I mean, I was scared _for_ her. She was the last person on this earth that should have had to go through her ordeal, but this was the cards we’d been dealt.

If she hadn’t have been in this situation, I probably would never have met her.

I couldn’t describe the electricity between us but it was like she made my heart race in a way I didn’t even know was possible.

I looked up when I heard a knock on the door. Reggie’s voice filtered in from underneath the gap between the floor and the door telling me that I had a few minutes before I was going into the ring. I gave him a grunt in answer and I thought he’d walked away.

“Oh, and uhh…” he added. “You have a visitor…”

I frowned and before I could question it, my door swung open and then slammed behind the short familiar form of my sister. I frowned at Cora.

She never came to my fights. And for good reason. She was underage, and with her height, there’s no way a bouncer would let her into the audience even if she _was_ twenty-one. In all honesty, I had no idea how she’d even made it in here right now. I assumed that Juice had had something to do with it.

She didn’t say anything, just stood across from me with her hands on her hips.

She looked so much like Mom when she did that – just, a midget sized version.

I rose an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes.

“So… are you gonna get your shit together or what?” she asked bluntly. I frowned at her.

“What–”

She held up a finger with the shake of her head to stop me from talking.

“I know that you’re seeing someone,” she said. “You’re not exactly super secretive in the way you’ve been sneaking around. And, like, whatever; I understand that you don’t wanna introduce her to me or Dad yet but like, you really need to get your head on straight because there’s a crowd of people out there counting on you to win this fight like you win all your others.”

My eyes widened at her words.

I was kind of speechless and didn’t know how to respond to my sister. But, what she was saying was what I needed to hear. She was the blunt proverbial smack in the head that I needed right now.

“How did you know?” I asked carefully. Cora grinned, shrugging slightly before she moved across the room. She took my hand and sat down on the sofa with me.

“I dunno. You’ve just seemed different for a while. At first, I’d just thought you’d found some casual club pussy but then I realized that that couldn’t be it. None of the girls in the house were bragging so I knew you had to be seeing someone else,” she shrugged with a soft smile.

I couldn’t find any words. I didn’t want to spill the beans to her just yet and she just grinned up at me, bumping my arm with her shoulder.

“You could’ve told me, you know,” she grinned. I nodded mutely and she chuckled. “Anyway, well I just came to tell you to get your head out of your ass for now, because its obvious that something happened with her and now you’re freaking out like you always do–”

“Hey, woah, woah!” I interrupted. “What do you mean ‘like I always do’?” My voice was high and accusing and Cora chuckled beside me.

“Oh, _come on_ ,” she grinned. “You’re more of a drama queen than Dad when it comes to this shit. Now you’re adding girlfriend drama to all that? _Please_ …”

She laughed to herself and my jaw clenched as I shook my head. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this from my own sister. My own flesh and blood.

“I can’t believe you,” I muttered. Cora chuckled beside me and knocked me with her shoulder again.

“Well, anyway. I know you’re not gonna spill the beans on what she’s like just yet, let alone let me meet her so I just came to say that right now you need to ignore whatever has gone down and you need to get your head in the game,” she said, her voice serious. “I got a glimpse of your opponent when Juice snuck me in here and the guy is not messing around. I need you to come out in one piece and I’m sure your new girl would appreciate that too.”

I huffed, running a hand through my hair but I nodded.

Cora was right.

If I let myself get distracted with all the shit going on with Lauren, I was going to get my head knocked off in this fight. This shit wasn’t regulated like a professional fight. These guys all came in dirty and they came for blood.

If I wasn’t ready to come in and beat their asses, they could kill me. This shit wasn’t a game and if I was distracted, it could not only end my career but it could end my life. It wouldn’t have been the first time it had happened to someone in this ring.

I nodded at my sister and she smiled, pulling me into a hug. I always dwarfed her in this situation but neither of us seemed to mind.

“Alright, now get your ass outta here before dad finds out and ground you,” I said. Cora chuckled shaking her head confidently.

“Nah, he wouldn’t dare. He loves me too much. Just hates that I take after him in the adrenaline chasing department.”

I grinned at her words because they were the truth.

“Don’t you have some homework to be getting back to or something,” I teased. Cora rolled her eyes and poked her tongue out at me childishly. When her hand was on the doorhandle, she turned back to me.

“Don’t fuck it up, Killer,” she said to me. I rolled my eyes.

“Please. I was born to fight.”

Cora smiled, her eyes twinkling. “I wasn’t talking about the fight…”

Before I could question anything, she was prancing out the door to find Juice to take her home. I sighed, running a hand through my hair and nodding to myself to psych myself up.

I heard a knock on my door. Reggie was telling me I had one minute until show time. I took a deep breath.

Cora had told me to forget about Lauren for the moment, but I couldn’t. So, instead of focusing on her maybe-maybe-not rejection of me, I decided to keep her in the forefront of my mind as the reason that I needed to win this fight.

If this fight would help my reputation that would in turn help me break her out of that hellhole, then I was going to _obliterate_ my opponent.

I was going to do it _for_ her. I was going to make it out _for_ her. It was all for _her_.

.

**Aww we love a sibling heart to heart. Plus, what do we all think about that kiss?**


	23. 17

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN**

**Lauren**

I was back out in the garden. It was already late afternoon, so it was already past the time that Lucas would normally come to visit me. I knew he wasn’t coming.

I was worried that I’d ruined it all and he wasn’t going to come back at all.

That possibility made me sadder than I ever thought it would have.

He had made himself a staple in my life every day for more than a month so how was I supposed to give that up now? Just because I’d kissed him and then we’d stopped?

I sighed.

I’d been beating myself up for pushing him away when that had never been what I wanted. I didn’t know why I did it. I didn’t know why I’d pushed him away because I’d regretted it immediately. Especially after he left.

He must have thought he’d done something wrong but it was totally the opposite. For the first time in a long time, someone was treating me right and I hated that I was screwing it up.

_You’re such an idiot, Luna_ , I chastised myself.

I had felt like an idiot for the better part of the afternoon. I’d sat around my room practically with baited breath as I hoped against hope that he’d show up. I had no idea where he’d gone after he’d left me or what he’d done and I couldn’t help but think that maybe he’d gone and found someone else.

It was the small insecure part of me couldn’t help it. It was simple – I wasn’t giving him what he wanted so why wouldn’t he go to someone else? What would be stopping him? The answer is nothing.

I knew that he wouldn’t. Because… well, he just didn’t seem like the type. And I knew that he’d probably gone somewhere else to blow off steam, like his gym or something. But, it didn’t make me feel any better when he hadn’t shown up.

Maybe he was trying to give me space because that’s what he thought I wanted, and I couldn’t blame him for that. But, the thing is that that wasn’t what I wanted, which only made that whole afternoon that much harder.

I’d buried my face in my pillow when I gave up hope. Then a little while after, Gervasi had showed up to take me down to the back garden. I was surprised at first because it was usually Konstantin who escorted me places but I’d shrugged it off.

He was probably busy.

In the garden, I’d taken my pad with me to draw some of the weeds. I had nothing else to do anyway, so I may as well try to get some practice in at capturing the afternoon light.

I even took my new colors down there to make it really pop off the page.

I just hoped that Lucas would come back to me soon. And I promised myself that when he did – well, I wouldn’t be holding back.

I was going to show him what I really wanted.

.

The next morning was pretty dismal.

I was given a breakfast of two slices of toast with strawberry jam, which wasn’t so bad. It was a step up from the bland wheat cereal that I’d been having.

I decided that I may as well spend some more time sketching. I didn’t know what I’d do when my pencils ran out but I guess I’d have to cross that bridge when I came to it.

I picked up my drawing pad and flipped to the drawing of Lucas that I’d done before we… well, _you know…_

I spent the next few hours on it, getting the shading right and the proportions. Then I spent a little longer working on his tattoo designs. They were a little harder to do from memory, just because there were so many of them.

When I felt like I’d put the finishing touches on the sketch, I smiled to myself and stared down at the drawing. I felt a little sad, because I kind of wished that he could have been here to see it…

I sighed, frowning and placing the pad on the bedside table. I looked over at the door where my lunch had been placed in the room. I didn’t feel like eating, though. So, I ignored the tray of food and instead lay down in the bed and pulled the covers over my head. I just needed to sleep for a while and take this stuff of my mind.

It didn’t look like Lucas was coming back today either.

It made me wonder whether he was actually going to come back to me or not.

.

_“You look beautiful this morning, darling.”_

_I smiled up at my mother. Her honey blonde hair was longer than my own and she had it styled up in a chignon bun on the top of her head with a paintbrush stuck through the middle. There were a few strands hanging down in her eyes and she blew them away with a quick breath._

_I looked down at my own clothing. I was just wearing my waitressing uniform for work and my hair was a mess. I had barely had time to run a brush through it after waking up, let alone paint on a lick of makeup._

_Looks like no tips for me today…_

_I sighed but smiled up at her._

_“Thanks, Mom, but I look like a zombie.”_

_My mother laughed her twinkly laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous, baby. You always look beautiful to me.”_

_Then she skipped past me and into the kitchen. I followed after her, and following what I knew was the smell of waffles. My dad was standing behind our small kitchen island and he had the toaster set in front of him._

_“Hey, ho ho, hey!” he grinned, tossing the waffles up in the air and juggling them to make me laugh like he used to when I was little. Mom walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist._

_The waffles landed on my plate which Dad then pushed in my general direction. I smiled at him in thanks and pressed a quick peck of a kiss to his cheek. Then I sat down at the table and watched as my dad grabbed my mom and began dancing around the kitchen with her._

_The two of them were fairly happy go lucky people, carefree and chilled out. And my dad liked to listen to folksy songs while he made breakfast, so this sight before my eyes wasn’t anything new._

_It was comfortable and I knew I was home._

_I loved this place and everything that it stood for._

_I knew something was wrong here but I couldn’t put my finger on it._

_“Mom, do you know what time you’re picking me up from work this afternoon?” I asked before I took a bite of my waffles._

_There was no reply._

_…_

_I looked up and into the kitchen before I frowned._

_My parents looked like they hadn’t heard me. And now they were wearing different clothes. They were holding each other, wearing drab black formal clothes that I’d only ever seen them wear to great aunt Kathy’s funeral. Mom’s hair was pulled down in a respectful ponytail and Dad’s usual smile was nowhere to be seen._

_Instead, his eyes were red rimmed as if he’d been crying._

_I frowned and tried to walk closer to them. But… it seemed like every step that I took got me further and further away from them._

_I tried calling out again but it was like speaking into a vacuum. “Mom! Dad! Someone please answer me!”_

_Nothing. Absolutely nothing. When I tried to turn around again, I wasn’t in my house anymore._

_…_

_I was standing next to a church._

_I frowned. My family didn’t go to church. My parents didn’t really believe in any of that… I spun in place and then my eyes widened as they landed on the small graveyard next to the place of worship. I gulped._

_I took a step towards the yard. My eyes cast over the various headstones. There were long lost grandmothers and grandfathers. Mothers and sons, fathers and daughters. There was even a lost young child here and there._

_I had always found these places a little depressing, but I kept walking._

_My eyes scanned over many names until I found one that looked slightly newer than the others. It was a simple headstone and it had no flowers or anything lying at its base._

_But it was the three names that made me stop short._

HERE LIES A MOTHER, FATHER, AND DAUGHTER

**_ALICE ROMANY HADLAND_ **

**_ROBERT BILIUS HADLAND_ **

**_LAUREN HALLE HADLAND_ **

LOVED BY ALL

A FAMILY LOST TOO SOON

_I tried to hold in my sob, but I couldn’t help it. My hands started shaking as I reached out to touch the headstone. I needed to feel their names in the stone to know it was real. Tears were falling down my cheeks too fast and they were blurring my vision._

_I leaned forward._

_I just needed one touch._

_But it never came._

_The world seemed to spin beneath my feet and then the headstone was gone and everything was black._

.

I woke up with a start and in cold sweats. My head was spinning and my heart was heavy. I wanted to be sick and I wanted to cry until my eyes were dry and my lungs were sore.

I didn’t want to believe that they were dead.

I couldn’t.

I had to hold onto the hope that they were still waiting for me at home. I needed to believe that they were still dancing freely in the kitchen to folk songs and juggling waffles.

I needed to believe it.

I needed to…

.

My day was fairly bleak after I woke up from that nightmare. I had had a shower after crying my eyes out to try and calm down my cold sweats. Then I’d mostly just lounged around for the day.

It wasn’t until I heard two soft knocks on my door that my breath hitched.

It was like my mind was speechless as the door then swung open and he walked inside with a careful look in his eyes. He was wary of me, but I could hardly comprehend that at the moment.

His lip was split, I could see that from here. His hair looked different too – like he’d washed it recently. His lips were parted slightly and he hadn’t moved from the door.

His dark brown eyes were wide but downcast. He didn’t know what to do.

Truthfully, I didn’t either. Which was why I was so surprised when I felt my feet moving me across the room. Then I threw myself into his arms and my face buried into his chest.

I hadn’t realized how much one day without him had made me truly miss him like he was my arm that had been chopped off.

There was a moment of delay, but then I felt as his arms moved upwards to wrap around my waist as he held me tightly against him. Then my own hands trailed up his back slightly and then up to his neck.

Then I lifted my face and looked up at him through my lashes.

He was surprised I was hugging him. I didn’t blame him – I was just as surprised. Then I was even more surprised when I cupped his jaw with my palm and I stood on my tiptoes.

My lips found his and I pressed them together with precision as I tried to melt myself against him. I heard the small groan that sounded in the base of his throat as I felt him come apart.

His hands gripped at my t-shirt before one of his arms wound down to my leg. Our lips stayed attached as he hefted me upwards and I wrapped my leg around his waist before he turned us so I was leaning against the wall.

He held me there as he took control of our kiss. I mewled softly against him, making him bite down on my lower lip.

My stomach fluttered like I’d swallowed a forest of butterflies and my heart hammered in time with the hundreds of thoughts ricocheting around my brain. His lips were hard against mine, but I loved it.

I loved the way he tasted – kind of like leather because that was the way he smelled. It was intoxicating and all encompassing.

I felt safe within the strength of his arms. I was surprised to realize that I felt at home.

He pressed me harder into the wall and I groaned. His lips suddenly left mine and the fell to my jawline and then to my neck where he suckled against my skin hotly. My eyes were clenched and my toes curled as he pressed a nerve with his lips.

“I’m sorry,” I managed to whisper.

Lucas stopped immediately and pulled away from me. He still held me against the wall but he leaned far enough away where he could look me in the eyes. My fingers immediately gripped at his shirt as if to keep him close in case he got the wrong idea again.

I stared into his deep brown eyes before my eyes flicked down to his swollen lips and then back up again.

“I’m sorry for the other day,” I mumbled. Lucas softened, sighing slightly and shaking his head. I could feel him starting to pull away from me emotionally.

“No. I should be the one apologizing. I pushed you into something you weren’t ready for and–”

I cut him off by putting a finger to his lips and shaking my head slightly. Lucas frowned at me but let me keep going. I moved my finger off his lips and replaced it with my own mouth.

After a quick kiss, I pulled back again.

“You didn’t push me into anything,” I whispered. “I didn’t even mean to push you away when you were giving me _what I wanted_ …”

I watched as Lucas began to understand my words and his eyes widened slightly. Then I watched as the lust returned to his irises and he gave me a self-assured smirk.

“Well then… please don’t get mad at me for what I’m about to do…”

My eyes widened in surprise before a giggle slipped through my lips as his mouth descended back on my neck. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and then he picked me up from the wall – my legs still wrapped around him – and he made his way to the bed.

I had told him that this is what I wanted, and that I was ready,

Well… we were about to find out if that was indeed true…

.

**You guys will like the next one ;)**


	24. 18

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

**Lucas**

I laid her down on the bed before I took a step back. She looked incredible with her hair splayed across the pillow and her bright blue eyes wide as she watched me.

I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to come back to her, and for what? Just for her to tell me I never should have left in the first place? I was a fucking idiot and I was done ignoring what I knew I wanted.

What I needed.

What I was craving.

She was my craving.

My hands found the edges of my cut and I pulled it off my shoulders, discarding it on the floor before I walked back to the bed and lying down carefully on top of her. Her chest was rising and falling with her heavy breaths as her eyes were on mine.

She felt feather light beneath me, breakable like mottled glass. I tried to keep most of my weight off her, until her hand snaked up and tentatively held my bicep. She guided me down further with wide eyes until my body caressed hers at every fold and mound and muscle.

She let out a whisper of a breath, not meeting my eyes.

I swear… this girl would be the death of me.

I lowered my head until my lips met hers. Her eyes fluttered closed as my tongue swiped at the seam of her lips and I heard her sharp intake of breath through her nose as I pushed further to put more pressure on her lips.

My hands snaked down her arms until I found her hands, then I drew her arms up above her head. My fingers intertwined with hers in a lovers handhold as my tongue pried her lips apart and delved into the sweet cavern of her mouth.

I couldn’t decipher what she tasted like, but she was headier than cognac. I could have gotten drunk off the way she tasted. She let out a breathy moan into my mouth as I explored her with my own.

Her fingers tightened in my grip, holding me close to her.

I could feel myself getting hard in my pants and the girl hadn’t even taken off a lick of clothing yet. I wanted to melt into her skin and stay there forever. I didn’t know why it had taken me so long to get to this point but I was here… and I was never leaving.

I drew my lips from hers and began dragging them slowly across her jawline. I knew enough about women’s bodies to know what drove them wild. I knew their pressure points and their most sensitive places.

And for Lauren, it would be felt tenfold. Because… this was all new for her.

I cursed myself as I remembered that she’d never done this before. I couldn’t race through this. She deserved to be shown how this was supposed to be done. She deserved to be treated like the mother fucking queen that she was.

My lips moved from her jawline to her neck, my tongue tracing a small trail up to right below her earlobe. She shivered into me as I pulled her earlobe between my teeth and then kissed and suckled at her soft skin below.

The was a niggling feeling of doubt inside me that told me that maybe I was stealing a piece of her virtue. She had been brought to this place against her will and sold for a high price for the sole purpose that she’d never known the touch of a man.

And I was feeding into the reason she’d been bought, just like they had wanted me to on the first night I’d stepped foot into this house.

I was giving them what they wanted, and at her expense.

This wasn’t fair to her.

I sighed into her skin as my lips moved to her neck and suckled there. I could feel the primal urges inside me that made me want to mark her. Her skin was practically singing out to me and she smelt heavenly. Everything about her was so completely enticing and enthralling that I couldn’t get enough.

I groaned lowly into her neck as my teeth grazed over her smooth skin. She was warm to the touch. My hands gripped at hers slightly as my lips descended back on her neck. I couldn’t help myself. It was like my brain and my mouth were working on separate brainwaves.

Because, despite the turmoil over stealing a piece of her innocence for myself was completely ignored as my tongue and my teeth grasped the skin of her neck and began to suckle like a babe at the teet.

Lauren hiccupped out a whispered moan as I engulfed her into my mouth and her fingers gripped me back. I couldn’t help the boost that that gave my ego before my lips left her neck. I moved back upwards and captured her lips with mine.

She kissed me back with a mixture of timidness and ferociousness that I hadn’t been expecting. But, my ego loved that, too. There was just something about her that I couldn’t put my finger on, and yet, I kind of liked that she had so many secrets about her.

As my lips devoured hers, my fingers left her hands and trailed down her sides. I felt as her tentative fingers found their way to my hair and wound through it. Her fingernails scraped at my baby hairs, driving me wild.

Then she gripped at a few of my locks without realizing it and it made my cock twitch in my pants. This girl was leaning into her instincts and it was driving my body crazy. It was like she knew how to push my buttons as much as I knew how to push hers.

My hands drew down to the hem of her shirt and I gripped at the material. Then I started to smooth it up her skin. My fingers grazed her midsection as I pushed the simple tee upwards to her shoulders.

Her hands left my hair and reached upwards so that I could slide the material off her body.

Our lips detached for a moment when separated by her shirt, but I glued mine back to hers only milliseconds later. She whimpered beneath my lips and I grinned before my fingers trailed featherlight grazes back down her midsection before resting at the warm skin over her abdominals.

I wanted to dig my fingers into her sides and anchor her to me.

I swear, this girl was doing things to me that I didn’t even know were possible.

I moved my lips from hers to drag them down the column of her neck and to her décolletage. I pressed open mouthed kisses to her skin as my lips travelled further to the valley of her breasts.

She was shuddering uncontrollably beneath me as I kissed over the swells of her sweet mounds. I looked up at her through my lashes as my hands gripped ever so slightly tighter at her waist. Then I looked down at her breasts. She was wearing the pristine white set of lingerie from the first night I’d met her.

I realized that she probably didn’t own many other pairs of undergarments, but this particular set did two things to me.

The first was it made me realise just how much I wanted to ravish her. I wanted to rip the fabric from her skin and cover her with love bites until she looked like she’d been attacked by a red marker.

The second was that it once again reminded me of not only her chastity, but of her price. I grit my teeth and forced myself to forget all of that shit. I wanted her and she wanted me and that was all I could bear myself to focus on right now.

My teeth grazed over her nipple through the fabric of her lingerie, making her shiver. Her hands found my hair again, pushing me closer to her without her really realizing it. My hands moved upwards on her body and gripped at the cups of her bra. I pulled them downwards, exposing her nipples to the cold air before my lips descended once more.

The sound of her surprised gasp as my tongue swirled around the hardening nub, filtered through my ears momentarily and she pulled at the roots of my hair, making me groan into her skin.

I didn’t even have the time to appreciate the pure beauty of her femininity. Her nipples had been a dusky pink color and peaked straight in the air, alluding me to her arousal. I spent my time on her nipples, circling her areolas with my tongue and nipping softly at the stiff peaks.

She deserved to have time spent on her, and before I knew it, her hips were grinding softly and slowly against mine as her body moved of its own accord. Her instincts were taking over and it was driving me batshit.

I could feel my cock straining in my pants but I had to ignore it. She could no doubt feel my member pushing against her hip bone through my pants but right now was about her. She’d waited her whole life for this moment, which meant that _junior_ could stand to wait another little while longer.

She moaned softly into the air as I tweaked at her nipples and massaged her breasts with my deft fingers as I pressed hot kisses to her soft skin. She was intoxicating and I couldn’t get enough.

Before long, I felt her hands move from my hair as she boldly moved them down the muscles of my back. Her fingers trailed down my spine until they fell to the hem of my shirt. Then her warm hands travelled underneath the material and up, and up, and up…

Her fingers gripped at my skin and her fingernails raked down in shock when I bit into her dusky nipple. She gasped against me and then I moved away. Her hands fell out from underneath my shirt as I sat back on my knees.

I cast my eyes over her. She looked ravaged, but she also looked angelic. Her hair was splayed out like a halo and her eyes were hooded, but underneath were sparked with lust and arousal.

Her lips were wide and slightly bruised and her nipples were pointing straight into the air.

I wanted her more than I wanted my life to continue.

She was like the object of a renaissance painting in front of me and I couldn’t make my eyes break away from her. She was extremely beautiful, and as I looked into her eyes, I didn’t see a lick of hesitation.

In fact, for the first time with anyone I’d shared a bed with, I saw a flicker of challenge in her eyes.

There was a fire inside her, and it had been subdued by her ‘master’ for the last two months, but he couldn’t rob her of her fire. And right now, that fire looked like it wanted to consume me.

This woman was an enigma. She was fierce and she knew what she wanted, but she’d been beaten back.

Well, I was here to set her free again.

She needed to burn everything around her and be reborn again.

So, with that in the forefront of my mind, I pulled the hem of my shirt over my head and watched as her eyes trailed down my torso. I watched the lust blossom further in her sky-blue irises and watched as her chest heaved in anticipation.

She made my mouth water.

I leaned forward and wrapped my arms underneath her, unhooking the clasp of her bra with one simple flick of my wrist, before I was pulling it off her chest.

I watched Lauren part her lips before her tongue darted out and swiped across the rosy pillows, leaving them glistening. Then my hands moved down and popped the button on the shorts she wore.

I dragged the zipper down slowly, and I swear the room was silent enough that we could both hear as each single metal tooth in her zip was slowly undone. Then I pulled the pants down her legs.

I threw them on the floor swiftly before my hands splayed across the milky skin of her thighs. She was beautifully innocent and I looked up at her panty covered kitty. I could smell her arousal and I wanted to bury my nose inside her and drink her in.

I looked up to find that her head was thrown back and her chest was rising and falling with her heavy breathing. I hadn’t even touched the girl yet and she was falling apart.

At this rate, she’d come by barely breathing on her.

I leaned down and hoisted her legs over my shoulders in one quick movement. Lauren lifted her head in shock and we locked eyes.

“Do you trust me?” I managed to whisper, my voice husky with arousal. The girl bit her lip in one of the single sexiest movements I’d ever seen. I wanted to pound into her right at that moment, but I needed to hear her words.

Her eyes were wide and I could see the indecision in them.

My body couldn’t help it, it was separate from my brain again, and before she could answer, my fingers grew impatient and one flicked out and flicked against her clit through her panty.

She gasped and jolted before she locked eyes with me again.

“Yes,” the whispered breathily and I grinned. That was all I needed to hear.

My tongue darted out and I licked from her core to her clit over her lingerie, but I still got the reaction I wanted.

Lauren threw her head back again and let out another whimper. I buried my nose in her core like I had wanted to do before and breathed in heavily. She smelt sweet and exhilarating all at once. I had never wanted a woman as much as I wanted her.

My cock twitched once more at being so close to what I wanted. I would still have to wait longer, though.

Lauren was untouched after all, which meant that she’d need some loosening up before I even tried to go any further. She would need to be completely relaxed before I introduced her to Lucas Junior.

My fingers hooked around the straps of her lingerie and I pulled them down her thighs. She lifted her feet so that I could get them off and then I discarded them on the floor somewhere. My eyes honed in on her core. The sensitive skin was pink and rosy and waiting for me.

I watched as she unwittingly clenched her core in anticipation and I smirked, watching it close and then open again as she relaxed.

She was glistening already, which made me feel incredibly good about myself. My hands moved up her thighs and up to her core. My thumb circled her kitty, making her gasp at my light touch.

Then my thumb moved up and pressed down harshly on her clit, she jolted. She hadn’t been expecting such pressure seeing as I’d been using such a light touch beforehand, but this was what she needed.

She whimpered and convulsed beneath me as I massaged hard against her sensitive nub. I wondered for a moment whether she’d ever explored down here herself or if this was all new to her.

If she had never touched herself, she might be even more highly strung than I anticipated.

She would have no control. No inhibitions. She would have nothing stopping her.

That thought made me grin and I somehow applied even _more_ pressure. Lauren let out a high pitched moan and I watched her stomach tighten as I practically bruised her sensitive skin. Then, she convulsed beneath my fingers as I pinched and pulled at her sensitive nub and she fell apart at my fingertips.

Her moan hitched out intermittently as her hips rose and swirled with her orgasm. My nostrils flared as her aroma drifted upwards towards my face and I inhaled deeply. She was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

As she came down from her orgasm, I slowed down my movements on top of her clit. I guided her through her aftershocks and my gaze stayed pinned on her kitty. I watched as the creamy substance began to appear and drip slowly from her core.

I wanted to dip my tongue in and devour her.

My finger moved from her clit and travelled through her folds until I arrived at her core. I pressed my thumb over the slick hole, plugging it up for a moment. Lauren was panting beneath my fingers and then I looked up at her.

“Last chance to back out, baby,” I whispered. Lauren sent me a stricken look that told me if I dared to stop what I was doing, she’d chop off my most valued appendage. I didn’t dare question whether she was going to follow through on that unspoken promise.

Instead, my thumb slowly began to descend inside her. I watched her throw a hand over her mouth to try and stifle her moans. My thumb sank inside her, further plugging her up. The clenched around my digit and all I could think was _holy shit, that’s fucking tight_.

I bit my lip and my jaw clenched as I began to thrust my thumb in and out of her sweet kitty. Lauren was falling apart once again as my thrusting got faster. I pulled my thumb out and replaced it with a longer, more slender finger instead.

Then I added a second, to which she gasped. Her core clenched hard around me, inspiring me to massage her skin in an effort to get her to relax. I didn’t want to hurt her or try and push her body where it wasn’t ready, but god forbid. I couldn’t hold myself back much longer.

Some people say that men’s brains are in their cocks, and if that was true, then my cock was about to bust out of my pants and overtake my self-control.

I scissored my fingers inside her, making her jolt against me again and her chest heave, making her nipples bounce slightly. She gasped when her hips started to grind against my hand. As I split my fingers and thrust them inside her faster, I watched her body shudder as it was overcome with a second, smaller orgasm.

Lauren was whimpering when I pulled my fingers from her kitty and allowed her arousal to gush from her core. I brought my fingers to my lips and my eyes fell closed as her pure taste fell on my tongue.

She was everything I could have imagined and more. I was immediately addicted and I couldn’t help myself as I bent lower and descended on her kitty. I could have been purring as my tongue darted out to catch the slow drip of her sweet arousal from her core.

Lauren gasped as I mashed my lips slowly against her arousal and my tongue dipped into her kitty to gather her cream on my tongue. I couldn’t describe her taste, but she was like heaven walking on earth.

Her fingers found my hair and pushed me closer to her core and I obliged. My tongue dragged over her slit, collecting her cream and swallowing in gulps. She just kept coming and coming and coming and there was a point where I felt drugged on her taste and like she would never end.

I had to pull myself away with a dazed look in my eyes and then I couldn’t wait any longer. I moved upwards and pressed my tongue into her mouth, allowing her to taste what she was doing to me. She moaned lowly into my mouth and I grunted when her naked hips started grinding against my jeans.

She didn’t even know she was doing it. She was just riding the high.

I leaned back, standing up and unbuttoning my jeans. As I let them fall, Lauren looked up at me with a drugged look in her eyes. She looked like she’d been satisfied to the moon and back, but this girl had no idea what was coming her way.

When my jeans fell to the floor and I was left in just my boxes, her eyes widened when they fell on the tent in my pants. I didn’t have time to beat around the bush. I dropped the material from my hips and watched with a self-assured smirk as my cock sprung free and pointed straight at the girl.

She licked her lips as her eyes roved over my full naked figure just as I had done to her. I watched her eyes fill with arousal as she checked me out and then her eyes darted up to meet mine. They were wide as were her parted lips. One day I’d love to shove my cock down her throat, but I didn’t have the patience for that right now.

I kneeled between her legs before I lifted her knees. I settled her legs open and rested them at my hips as I leant forward. The tip of my member swiped against her sensitive folds and the girl convulsed at just that small touch.

She had no idea what was coming for her.

I leaned over and looked straight into her eyes. I wanted her to see how sincere I was and how seriously I was taking this situation. She deserved for someone to care about her in a world where no one seemed to these days.

She deserved for me to know what she was going through, and understand it all.

So, I held back the part of me that wanted to pound a hole through her and instead I parted my lips as I stared down at her. Her eyes were wide and I could see the fear in them. She was unsure, as she should have been.

Giving up this part of her was not something I could devalue. It had to be something that I would treasure for the rest of my life and she needed to know that.

“Tell me what you want,” I whispered. She needed to be in charge. She needed to know that this was as much her decision as it was mine.

The girl gulped beneath me and I felt her hands rise until they rested on my waist. She was trembling slightly but her eyes were like steel as they bore into my own.

She didn’t say a word but she leaned her head forward and captured my lips with her own. I let her take the lead, allowing her to explore and show me what she wanted and how she wanted it.

When he tongue started to explore my mouth, I felt her hands trail down my body until they rested at my ass. Then she pressed me forward until the blunt of my tip knocked against her clit, making her moan into my mouth.

That was enough for me.

I took over the dominance of the kiss and practically shoved my tongue down her throat in my over-eagerness. Then my hand trailed down and I gripped my cock in my hand. I squeezed myself from root to tip and groaned into her mouth before I let her lips go.

I moved my tip to her clit, and then began slowly sliding myself down through her slick folds. Lauren was gasping and her hands were gripping at my skin as my blunt made it to her core. Before I could push in, I looked into her eyes.

My spare hand came to her jaw and cupped it, making her lock eyes with me. “Relax, baby,” I whispered. “Your pleasure is my number one priority.”

I watched as Lauren’s eyes fluttered shut at my sweet nothings and then her grip on my skin relaxed slightly. She bit her lip and I took it as my cue. I pushed myself forward slightly and she gasped.

Her eyebrows creased and she bit her lip even harder. I grunted, trying to push further but the girl was locked up tighter than the state penitentiary. My hand flew to her clit and I started massaging against her sensitive button in a harsh effort to get her to relax.

It seemed to work because my hips flexed forward and my mushroom head managed to breach her walls. I stopped myself there, letting Lauren get used to my size and width. It was hard enough for experienced girls, let alone this innocent beauty at my fingertips, but _god_ did I love the way she clenched me tightly.

Lauren was panting beneath me and I flexed my hips, rolling them and my cock sunk further inside her. She let out a long, slow, low moan as I managed to sink into her, up to the hilt.

She took deep breaths before I watched her eyes widen in the realization that I was fully inside her.

My balls were resting at her ass and her hips were flush against mine. I moved her legs and she instinctively wrapped them around my waist, unwittingly making me drop further inside her. I grunted and she let out a breathy whimper.

Then her core clenched me in an effort to demand me to move. And who was I to say no?

My arms wound around her head and hers seemed to come around my shoulders as I buried my head in her neck. We were molded together at every meeting of our skin and I felt like I was trying to become a part of her.

Then I raised my hips up slowly, pulling out of her at snails pace. She let out a moan at the feeling of my mushroom head gliding along the spongy ridges of her inner walls and she clenched me.

“Pleasedontstop,” she managed to moan. My lips secured themselves against her neck and I suckled at the skin as I thrust back inside her. After a few more tries, I started to speed up and I felt my cock kick inside her.

I turned my head to capture her lips in mine as I started to _pound_ into her. Her body jolted and convulsed underneath mine as she fell apart in my arms. Her moans were swallowed by my lips and her core clenched my cock as I felt her come apart.

She rolled her hips against mine as she tried to prolong her orgasm but I couldn’t stop.

My hips kept thrusting, harder and harder and faster and _harder_ …

Lauren squealed out a moan under me as my lips fell back to her neck. Her breath was pushed from her lungs with her thrust of my hips as I pushed her into a steamrolled second orgasm – her fourth of the night. Even for someone experienced in sex, four orgasms would be a lot.

But for Lauren? That shit was so overwhelming that I was afraid maybe she’d pass out. And yet, my hips wouldn’t stop.

It was like I was a madman on a mission as my hips pistoned in and out of her. She was driving me wild as much as I was driving her wild. I was seeing no signs of stopping and I think Lauren knew that too, as my thrusts pushed her to a final orgasm of the night.

Something inside her seemed to snap and she let out a scream. I felt her give way beneath me and I roared before I pulled myself away. My cock was reefed from the clenching of her core and I came with a rush against her leg.

She somehow sprayed against me as I realized that she was experiencing squirting for the first time. For someone who had never been brought to orgasm to suddenly experience the pinnacle of all orgasms on her first try… well, I was proud of her for not completely falling apart at the seams.

I stroked at my length as I spurted white hot ropes of cum against her leg before I fell forward, exhausted.

My arms wrapped around the beautiful girl beneath me and I pressed my lips to hers. My sem-erect cock lay between the folds of her kitty as she wrapped her legs around me to come down from her high.

Both of us were out of breath and my mind seemed blank apart from thoughts of her.

She consumed me.

As I kissed her hotly, the girl moaned into my lips and gripped at my hair to keep my close. Her core was grinding slowly against my own as she rode through her aftershocks and the last of her orgasms.

If I could have, I would have stayed like that with her forever, in a post orgasmic bliss. And I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, we both passed out wrapped in each-others arms.

I slept deeper and more calmly that night than I had since my mother had passed.

It was like this girl was the missing piece in my life that I didn’t even _know_ I was missing. She completed me.

.

**How are we all feeling? ;)**


	25. 19

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

**Lauren**

Waking up next to him had been an adventure in and of itself. Granted, I had woken up in the middle of the night, and Lucas was well and truly passed out, but it was still an experience.

I was able to admire the structure of his face with the glow of the moonlight sifting through my window. He looked different in his sleep. Less stressed, less angry.

He had looked like that when he’d come apart against my leg too, but that was another thought entirely. He’d looked free. Free of what, I wasn’t sure, but he looked free all the same.

That moment with him… what we’d done… what he’d done to me, it was ground breaking for me. I didn’t know what had come over my body and my brain and my whole inhibitions but in that moment I had known only one thing, and that was that I wanted him and everything he could give me.

And hell, if he didn’t follow through.

He had been amazing and made me question why I hadn’t engaged in a sexual relationship any earlier in my life. He had made me feel things that surely didn’t belong on this earth. And I finally understood what the big deal was.

For someone with _zero_ experience – I had never even really been interested in touching myself – I had no yardstick with which to measure him, but I think my sheer number of orgasms spoke for itself.

I didn’t want to think about Lucas’ prior experience, because that would only surely depress me when what I felt for him in my chest grew stronger every day. But, he had been so confident and sure of himself that I knew I could trust him to treat me right.

And it was downright sexy.

His control and his strength did things to my body that I couldn’t even explain.

I let out a shiver as I realized that we were laying on top of the covers and we had both passed out very much in the nude. While Lucas was boiling hot like an oven that had been left on for too long, and my skin was warm where he held me, I was cold everywhere else.

I tried to move a little, fidgeting in his arms as I tried to move my legs to catch the quilt cover with my toe. When I finally managed to grab it, I very slowly brought it over myself so that I could be warm all over.

Lucas moaned underneath me and I felt his chest rumble. I looked up, afraid that maybe I’d woken him up and interrupted his sleep. But, it turned out he was just wanting to readjust himself.

I bit my lip as he moved us slightly, which worked in my favor so that I could pull the blanket on further. Then I wrapped it around the both of us and snuggled into the smooth skin of his russet colored chest.

I could hear his heartbeat under his skin and it was soothing me into sleep again. That was, until he shuffled minutely again and his… _junior_ … fell against my inner thigh.

I held in a gasp as he grew hard in his sleep and his fingers gripped me slightly tighter. I looked up at his face, realizing he must have been dreaming a _pretty satisfying_ dream. He hugged me closer and I couldn’t help the small smile that lifted to the corners of my lips.

I didn’t dare move, because however sexy he was and however easy it would be to nudge at his growing member, I was damn sore after the events of the night. While I had no frame of reference, I could imagine that Lucas was probably bigger than most.

It would probably take me a while to get over the residual pain in my lower reasons, and then a little longer to ever get used to him. But it was a process that I was surprised to fin myself kind of looking forward to it.

I fell asleep with his heartbeat thundering in my ears and his arms wrapped possessively around me.

.

He hadn’t been there when I woke up, which was just a huge blow to my confidence. If I hadn’t have woken up during the night and known he was there, I was afraid that maybe I’d start to think I imagined the whole thing.

But there was no way that my imagination could come up with all _that_.

When I’d woken up the next morning, I’d been wrapped in my blanket and in the shirt that he’d worn the night before, engulfing me in his cologne. My eyes were dull as I sat up in the bed. I drew the collar of the shirt up to my nose and breathed in. I couldn’t help it, there was just something about his scent that calmed me.

I looked around the room, noticing that my pad was lying on the other pillow. My eyebrows creased in the center and I reach over. It opened to a page where the corner had been dog eared.

A soft smile graced my lips as my eyes fell on the little stick figure sketch that was on the page. It was of a small stick figure holding up a heart. There were no words accompanying it but it was cute all the same.

I held it close to my chest for a moment before I then put it down and got out of the bed.

After showering and eating my breakfast, I didn’t feel like doing much until Konstantin came and got me and led me out to the garden. Soraya was already out there and I was a little surprised.

They usually kept us separated, probably because they didn’t want to let us get too comfortable with our freedoms. She was leaning back in her chair with a hand over her bulging stomach.

I pouted at her situation but I moved out and sat down beside her.

She gave me a pained smile and we didn’t say much for a while. It was only when she started breathing a little heavier that I rose an eyebrow in her direction.

“Are you okay?” I managed to mutter. Soraya shook her head at me and for a moment her face twisted in pain. I was genuinely worried that she was going into labor.

My eyes flicked back to the house, wondering if anyone might come to help her. But, it didn’t seem like anyone was watching us.

I reached a hand out and placed it over Soraya’s. she gave me a grateful smile through gritted teeth. After about thirty seconds, she seemed to calm down and relax in her chair again.

She sent me a look and my eyebrows creased.

“Braxton Hicks contraction,” she said, answering my unspoken question. Though, her answer was not much help. _Was I supposed to know what that was?_

She sighed. “They’re like uterine contractions that you get throughout pregnancy to prepare your cervix to give birth.” I frowned but nodded like I understood.

“Do they hurt? How long do they last? Does this mean you’re gonna go into labor soon?” I asked in a hurry. Soraya gave a small chuckle and looked wistfully up at the house. It kind of made her look years older than she was, like she was full of wisdom.

“Yeah, they can vary in pain from woman to woman. Kind of like a period in that way, you know? How they’re different for everyone?”

I nodded. But then my eyes widened as something hit me. My period hadn’t come in a long time. I knew that stressful situations could make you skip a few, and my new life situation probably qualified for that category but it was still cause for concern.

As someone who had never been late or irregular, it was concerning. Then there was the added factor of what had happened last night. Lucas and I hadn’t used protection, and that had been the furthest thing from my mind in that moment – as stupid as I knew that was – so now I was freaking out for a whole new reason.

“They last about thirty seconds to a minute,” Soraya continued, breaking me out of my downward spiral. “And no they won’t put me into labor, but I’m definitely not too far off that either…” she trailed off.

I frowned, looking up at her and taking her hand. I gave it a light squeeze. She looked about ready to pop, so really, it could have been any moment now.

“Do you think it’ll happen soon?” I asked. Soraya bit her lip and her eyebrows creased in the middle. She gave a half hearted shrug before she nodded.

Then she turned her eyes back to me and locked onto me.

“He thinks it could be any day now. Maybe a week or two at the most?”

I frowned. “Who’s _he_?”

Soraya bit her lip again, refusing to meet my eyes for a moment.

“His name is Oscar. He’s kind of been visiting me a few times a week to keep me company. Says he doesn’t want anything sexual from me and just thinks that I need a friend.”

I frowned.

“He’s a friend of _your_ man I think, actually,” she admitted on a soft chuckle. My eyes widened. A friend of Lucas’? He hadn’t mentioned anyone by the name of Oscar…

Soraya noticed the confusion on my face and nodded. “You might just know him as ‘Juice’,” she said, rolling her eyes and using finger quotes. “I refuse to call him such a stupid nickname,” she said, shaking her head with a small chuckle.

_Ohhhhhh_ , I thought to myself. That makes so much more sense now.

“Anyway, from what I can gather from him, he seems very sympathetic for my situation,” she said, her voice lowering to a mutter as a blush reached the apples of her cheeks. “But, I kind of can’t help it.”

“Help what?”

Soraya sent me a stricken look and sighed. “I think I like him,” she admitted. “I can’t help that I’m falling for him. Call it Stockholm Syndrome or whatever but I can’t help it because he’s the first person who’s treated me like I matter in _years…_ ”

I sighed, taking her hand again. I knew how she felt.

She sighed, shaking her head and putting on a brave face. “Anyway, let’s switch topics. I know you’re looking a little different today…” she trailed off as her eyes raked over me.

I blushed. I didn’t know if I was ready for the conversation that would follow. I didn’t know if I was ready to admit what Lucas and I had done last night.

I tried to look away from her but then I heard her gasp slightly as she finally recognized what was different.

“ _You didn’t_ …” she whispered.

I frowned, casting my eyes back to her, only to see that her eyes were full of unshed tears and her lips were parted slightly in horror.

She was shaking her head over and over and muttering under her breath. Her eyes kept darting between me and the house, as if afraid that they would overhear what we were talking about.

“Please tell me you didn’t…”

I frowned at her. Surely she wasn’t judging me right now, especially given her… state…

I immediately felt bad for that thought that sprung through my mind. She had had no way to attest her situation, so it wasn’t fair for me to judge her pregnancy, but it also wasn’t fair for her to judge me.

She didn’t know what Lucas and I had.

“I’m not sure it’s any of your business,” I said defensively. Soraya ran a hand over her face as she sighed.

“I just want you to be careful,” she said, her voice dropping to nothing more than a whisper. “If _they_ find out, you might be in a whole lot of trouble.”

I frowned, confused. “I’m not sure I follow…”

Soraya bit her lip. “The only reason you’re being kept in that room and that they abiding by your man’s rules is because he’s paying for a virgin. Once they find out that you’re no longer pure, they might not be so inclined to keep to your man’s rules.”

My eyes widened. I hadn’t considered any of this.

“Don’t forget that you’re in this house for one reason and that’s to end up like this,” she said, gesturing to her protruding stomach. “They are, after all, running a business.”

I bit my lip and she squeezed my hand.

“I’m just telling you to be careful,” she whispered. I nodded at the grave look on her face. I was taking her words to heart and I would not be telling a soul of what happened between Lucas and I. This was about my safety and I needed to survive in here as best I could.

My head turned and I jumped when I heard the door of the house slam open and whack against the wall.

“Time’s up,” Gervasi said, eyeing up Soraya. She sighed, squeezing my hand once more before she stood up. It was slow and calculated so that she didn’t hurt herself, but I could see Gervasi getting impatient.

Eventually, she hobbled over to him and he stepped out of the way to let her pass. Before the door shut behind them, though, he turned back and locked eyes with me. I couldn’t put my finger on the emotion behind his eyes, but it scared the shit out of me.

There was a dark promise in his eyes, and every fibre in my body wanted to put as much space between me and him as possible.

Then the door slammed shut and I was left alone in the garden. Alone with my thoughts. Alone with the idea that I might have to put some distance between Lucas and I, too, which was the _last_ thing I wanted right now.

.

**So… Juice and Soraya sitting in a tree…**


	26. 20

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

**Lucas**

“Come on, dude, you can hit harder than that! Don’t be a fucking pussy. You want me to send some toddies out here to spar with you or what?”

I growled at my best friend as he held his gloves up in front of his face. He wasn’t just talking shit. I wasn’t keeping all my bases covered at the moment because my head wasn’t in it.

I was kind of distracted at the moment.

A little blonde angel had something to do with that fact.

Juice whipped out a roundhouse kick, making me jump and block him quickly so that I wouldn’t land on my face. I sent him a glare.

I didn’t like when he played dirty, but I knew why he was doing it. He had seen the look on my face when I’d walked into the gym at lunch and he’d immediately guessed what had gone down.

He didn’t usually volunteer to spar with me but he had jumped into the ring before anyone could stop him. I had a fight coming up in the next few days and he wanted to make sure he was betting on the right fighter. So, he was whipping me back into shape whether I liked it or not.

Cocky asshole that he was.

He still thought he was better than me, and at the moment he had the upper hand because I had other shit on my mind. But, I would show him.

I had to.

And yet… my mind was racing with images of her body and that beautiful expression on her face when she fell apart over and over in my arms. Then that sweet relaxed smile on her face when I’d left her this morning? Shit… that shit was enough to fuel my sexual desires for the rest of my life.

She was way better than porn.

And I wanted to do it with her all over again.

I regretted leaving before she woke but I couldn’t allow her keepers to find out what we’d done. Plus, my father had called a meeting early this morning and I had needed to be there. I would go back to Lauren soon.

God knows I couldn’t keep away now.

Juice landed a kick to my stomach where I was twisting and left a space open for a millisecond. The asshole took his chance and before I could grunt out in frustration, he landed a punch to my jaw where I’d dropped my guard.

I swore, taking a step away from him to get my head clear again.

“Come on, man! This isn’t like you. Get you damn head in the fucking game!”

I glared at my friend, growling under my breath.

I came back at him strong on the offensive and managed to land a few good punches. I used the combinations that my muscle memory had perfected, and then threw in a few on-the-spot combos. Juice hit back at me just as hard and my defense got a workout as he went through some of his own combos.

Juice was gaining the upper hand, but I was finally thinking about my movements and my guard and my strength.

It was all I was focusing on… finally. Juice gave out a laugh of triumph as his kick sent me into the ropes.

I hung my head as my chest heaved. He had still beat me, but at least our spar was pretty much even there for the most part. I had never been able to keep up with him as much as this, so at least this meant that I was improving. Which was sick.

I’d beat him one day, I knew it.

He walked to his corner and took a seat, pulling his gloves off and dousing himself in his water bottle. I did the same, using a towel to dry the sweat on my face. We sat in silence for a while, catching our breath before he spoke up.

“Nice catch on that twist,” he grinned. “And your fly kick is higher than usual. You’re fast, I’ll give you that.”

I chuckled, nodding at my friend. We fell into comfortable silence again for a moment and I could feel Juice’s eyes on me, so I looked up and caught his eye. I rose a brow in question. Whatever he wanted to ask me, he needed to say it before I got pissed off with his staring at me.

“So…” he started. “You guys finally did it, huh?”

I frowned around my water, my eyebrows creasing as I didn’t understand what he was talking about. He rolled his eyes at me.

“You and that girl. You slept with her last night,” he said bluntly. I almost choked on my drink. I put it down and eyed him carefully.

“Uhh…” I trailed off. Juice just frowned at me. “How could you tell?”

Juice rolled his eyes. “Please. You think I could ignore that whipped look on your face when you walked in here?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and looking at him.

“So what?” I shrugged. “What’s it to you?” I couldn’t help the biting feeling inside me. Juice didn’t look happy for me. He looked worried.

“Look. You’re nuts about this girl, I get it. It’s just…”

I frowned. “Just what?”

Juice sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s just… well you know that pregnant girl I was telling you about?”

I stared at him before nodding once. I vaguely remembered him mentioning something. I knew that he’d practically had a rage attack in my room a while ago when he became obsessed with the idea of liberating them all.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew exactly where he was coming from. I just hadn’t heard him speak anything else about the situation since then…

“Well, I kind of went back to visit her a few times,” he admitted. His eyebrows creased with worry. I nodded silently, letting him continue. “And… Her name’s ‘Soraya’. She’s like crazy pregnant. I’m talking almost ready to pop. She wouldn’t talk to me the first few times I was there, but eventually she started to open up a little bit.

“She told me that she was the fourth girl they’d ever brought in, and that all the other girls before her had gotten pregnant, delivered, and then disappeared.”

I frowned at his words. This was serious shit. There was something else in his voice too, though. It was buried under his anger and his worry, but was that… did I detect, possibly, a little bit of longing?

“What happened to the kids?”

Juice sent me a stricken look and his hands were clasped together to stop them from shaking. This shit was really holding him up. His eyes were wide and in them I could see everything. He cared about this girl and her unborn child, possibly in the same way I cared about Lauren. If he did, then this was more serious than either of us could have thought.

“She didn’t say, but I don’t think she needed to. From the other things she’s said offhandedly, I kind of came to my own conclusion…”

I motioned for him to go on. I wanted to know what he’d figured out.

“Human trafficking, dude,” he said, his eyes hard. My stomach dropped at his words. I’d had my own suspicions, but it didn’t feel good to have them confirmed like this.

“And so… what does this have to do with Lauren?”

Juice sighed. “They only kept her in that room because you were paying for a virgin. But now that she’s not, she’ll probably be stuck back down in the basement with the others and used just like they all are…”

My hands clenched as I started to feel nauseous. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t considered the consequences of my actions. Instead I’d been thinking with my dick like I always was. Now, Lauren could very well be in serious danger.

“And look,” he continued. “I’ve been trying to do a bit of digging, you know? I wanted to see what I could find about this shit but I had nowhere to start. Then it hit me! It’d been staring in my face this whole time!”

I frowned. I had no idea what his revelation was…

“Their names!” he said, like that explained everything. I kept frowning at him before I motioned with my hands that he needed to continue. Juice let out a dramatic sigh but then divulged.

“Those guys that are always at that house. Soraya told me their names are Konstantin and Gervasi. I looked them up and they’re both common names in Russia and in Germany; and then I remembered you telling me that Jax was hearing mutterings from some guys inside, so I started looking into it a bit more.

My eyebrows furrowed and I nodded. This had definitely caught my interest. “And what did you find?”

“I’ve mostly just been going through cases of human trafficking and sex trafficking and prostitution in Eastern Europe in general. Some of that shit is pretty harrowing but I think I’ve figured out what they’re trying to do.”

My eyes widened.

“They can’t get these girls back to their country without being super suspect with the government and the airport with all the shit about passports and visas and stuff, right?” he said. I nodded, still slightly confused. Juice nodded like a madman. “But… their offspring are a different story altogether, right?”

I nodded mutely, hating that this topic was giving me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Well, Soraya kind of let it slip that Konstantin is the father of her child – you know, the one with the crooked nose? Anyway, if it’s true and he’s the biological father, it means he can legally take the kid back to his country. Especially if Soraya isn’t around to stop them…” he trailed off with a grimace. I didn’t want to think about what they might do to her once she delivered.

“You think they’re gonna kill her?” I asked, my voice low. Juice still winced at my tone, though. He bit his lip with a shrug, but then his worried eyes met mine, answering my question silently.

I think we both knew that they would.

“I wouldn’t put it past them. These guys are sick. So, anyway, then I went to the prison to ask Jax which guys were talking about the place. He gave me two names: Dimitri Petrov, who’s in his late 70s, and Ivan Sokol; and I looked into their criminal records. Petrov’s been inside for years on human trafficking charges and Sokol only went in recently, and he’s a huge dealer around town.

“Jax was telling the truth,” he said, his tone creating emphasis. I frowned. “Petrov apparently has four kids, three of whom supposedly died from SIDS but I don’t buy it. I reckon they got taken overseas. The woman who put him in jail was the mother of his fourth kid. The record said she’d escaped his house and told police he’d raped her and then she was put into witness protection when he was arrested.”

My eyes widened at the onslaught of information.

“My bet is that he was gonna take _that_ kid overseas, too,” Juice continued. “This is more than just a sex ring like we originally thought, dude. It’s a whole damn carefully orchestrated scheme and those girls lives are in real danger.”

I frowned. “Okay, let’s say you’re right,” I said. “Only one problem though…”

Juice rose an eyebrow at me and I shook my head with pursed lips.

“If what you’re saying is true, and the only way that they can get these infants overseas is by being the biological parent, why would they let any random person with the password into the house to knock up their women? They would legally have no claim on the kids because they’re not the paternal fathers…?”

Juice frowned but nodded, letting me know he’d already thought of that. “That’s the fucked up part, bro.”

My lips pursed as I waited for him to go on.

“I looked into the record of the younger guy, Sokol. The guy apparently tried to cut a deal with police to lessen his sentence. He claimed to have information about a sex-ring, but the police hadn’t even known about it so they thought he was lying. They didn’t follow up on it, and so didn’t give him a reduced sentence, but they still let him confess anyway.”

“Sounds like shady cops to me.”

“I know, right? What’s new there, though,” Juice nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Anyway, in his confessions he vaguely alluded to some guy he knows that can forge documents and get kids out of the country under different names and botched paternity tests. I reckon they’ve just found a way to make it global and that’s why there are so many more girls in that house than before.”

My eyes widened as the puzzle pieces started to fall into place.

“Soraya told me that it used to just be her and like two other girls, but you’ve seen it. Now there’s a good dozen, which means that these guys are looking to make a legit business out of this. Who knows how many other girls they have on the way, you know?”

I wanted to throw up.

If all of this was true, I had probably signed Lauren’s death sentence. As well as every other girl in that house.

“So… what do we do?” I asked, my voice low and breathless.

Juice frowned. “Dude, I think you know what we have to do…”

I frowned, running a hand through my hair as I shook my head. “Dude. No.”

Juice sighed angrily at me. “You know he’s our only choice. He’s our only hope at actually getting them out!”

I shook my head again. “No! I can’t bring him into this. Especially when we don’t know any of this for sure.”

“So, what are we supposed to do then!” Juice growled. “Just let them sit in there? Let Soraya give birth and have her damn kid be taken away? Let your girl be raped by those assholes and probably impregnated too?!” he demanded.

I glared at him for bringing up Lauren, but I couldn’t deny he was right about it. I knew he was coming from a place of wanting to protect them all, but I couldn’t involve my father.

He would either vilify me for not telling him about this shit sooner, or he’d kill me for wasting his and the club’s time if we were wrong about this whole thing.

“We need to know for sure before we do anything,” I growled. Juice stood up abruptly, his chair falling over with a slam.

“You’re being a fucking coward!” he growled. I glared at my friend.

“No, I’m being smart about this shit! If we go in there guns blazing armed to the teeth with my damn club, they’ll blow those girl’s heads off. You need to think with your head here and not your heart!” I blew up, standing up as well.

My friend glared at me before he pushed past me, knocking my shoulder. He jumped down from the ring through the ropes. He didn’t look back at me, so I called out after him.

He froze when I called his name. We were damn lucky we were the only ones in the gym right now. It would have been shit for anyone to overhear that conversation.

“I know you’re scared,” I said lowly. Juice clenched his jaw and I sighed. “Shit, I mean, I’m scared as hell, too. But… you know I’m right. But we’ll get them out,” I promised. “I know we will.”

Juice didn’t answer me, but he glared in my direction before turning on his heel and storming with determination towards the bathroom.

I sighed, landing back in my chair. This shit was overwhelming, and the shitstorm that Juice had just dropped on me would now be swirling around in my brain until I could see Lauren again.

I needed to make sure that she stayed safe and that her keepers didn’t know she wasn’t a virgin anymore. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if she got hurt because of me.

She didn’t deserve that.

.

**I’m wondering if I blew anyone’s mind just now?**


	27. 21 pt1

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (Part 1)**

**Lauren**

After Soraya left the garden, I hadn’t spent much more time out there before I wanted to go back to my room, too. Her words had left me less than inspired and all I wanted to do was sleep, really.

Because, the night before had kind of taken it out of me in a way I hadn’t expected.

When I had walked up to the back door and knocked, Konstantin had pulled it open with a sneer and dragged me inside. I had winced at his grip on my wrist but had no choice but to let him lead my back upstairs to my room.

Then he slammed the door behind me and I was left to be confused over his brute force. Usually none of them touched me, because that was how Lucas had wanted it.

_Maybe they know… you weren’t exactly quiet last night_ , I thought, my stomach sinking as I was overcome with a wave of nausea. Then there was the added factor that they could have overheard my conversation with Soraya.

My eyes widened and my stomach broiled. I ran towards the bathroom and fell to my knees before I emptied my stomach into the toilet bowl.

I didn’t have much to heave up, because I still wasn’t being fed a whole lot, but it was enough for my stomach acids to burn the lining of my throat. Tears ran down my cheeks as I dry heaved until my stomach was empty.

I sat back on my heels and tilted my face up to the ceiling. The lights in the bathroom were bright and I squinted as I tried to stop my head from spinning. I managed to flush the toilet and then stand up and make my way to the sink. I put my hands under the cold water and splashed some on my face.

My chest heaved with my breaths as I tried desperately to cool down. I had no idea what had come over me. Was that all it took these days? One bad thought and suddenly you were praying to the toilet gods…

I sighed, shaking my head as I looked into the mirror. The girl who stared back at me was someone I barely recognized, despite having to stare at her face every day. This girl wasn’t someone I knew.

She wasn’t the no-nonsense smart ass that I’d grown up with. Instead she was haggard and scared and much too thin. This girl was weak and the world had beaten her down. I could see it in the hollows of her eyes and her sallow skin, her sunken cheeks and her cracked lips.

I wondered what Lucas saw in that girl. She didn’t look anything special to me.

I turned away from the mirror, wiping my mouth on a towel before I walked out of the bathroom. My eyes widened when I realized I wasn’t alone in the room…

Gervasi stood at the door with a glare in his eyes. They snapped up when I walked into the room and he sneered darkly. His eyes glinted with cruelty and I couldn’t help but gulp.

“So…” he started, his voice snarking in that foreign hitch of his. “A little birdy tells me that you’ve been keeping secrets…”

I didn’t say anything. My hand held the handle to the bathroom. If I needed to, maybe I could barricade myself in there…

Gervasi took a step forward, his hulking frame seeming to take up the entire room. I felt like the walls were getting smaller with each step he took, and he was getting bigger.

“You know, I wanted you from the first day you were in here, but the boss said no, that you were for someone special,” he growled, smirking. “So… you can imagine my surprise when I found out that that someone _special_ was actually just a local outlaw with some cash in his pockets.”

My hand dug into the door handle. I wanted to open it and run for my life. I wanted to throw myself into the void and never resurface. But, in my heart I knew that it wouldn’t work. The man was faster than my weak self.

My heart was racing as he took another step forward.

“And then his smug ass gave us all those damn rules… _you can’t touch her, you gotta feed her, you can’t do this, you can’t do that._ The guy acted like he was running the damn show,” Gervasi spat, his eyes angry now. “And for a month I had to let him in here. Every day for a fucking month!”

I gulped.

“Every day for a month and I had no idea if he’d taken you yet or not. Do you know what it’s like to stand outside a door for days on end and just listen to whether you had come or not?”

My stomach dropped at his words. Had he really done that? Had he really stayed so close on every one of Lucas’ visits?

“And then, it’s just my fucking luck,” he sneers. “The day that I fucking give up on it all because it’s clear he’s getting nowhere with you, you suddenly strip down and give it up for _him_ !”

He took another step forward, so close now that I could smell garlic on his breath.

“And so, I – none the wiser – had to hear it from that damn slut down the hall,” Gervasi spat. “You, like a little whore, finally gave it up for that pompous prick, and finally gave in. And do you know what that means now?”

I didn’t answer, instead winced slightly at his tone. He was standing so close to me now that I had to look upwards at him. I was shit scared. My heart was racing and my hands were practically shaking. My whole body felt numb, though.

Because… I recognized this speech.

Back when I’d been left alone in that first room, before Faye had arrived… I’d heard this tone of voice and this taunting kind of language. There was no doubt in my mind that Gervasi was the man who’d raped that girl against the wall each night for a week until she passed out.

Which meant I knew what was coming. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“That means… that I don’t have to take orders from that asshole anymore,” he grinned menacingly, showing me his yellowing teeth as his eyes sparked. “You’re not pure anymore, which sheds _every. single. lick_ of your innocence. You’re free reign, which means I can finally do whatever _the fuck_ I want to, to you.”

I gasped, horrified that my suspicions were confirmed. Before I could say or do anything, the man gabbed me by the wrists, and picked me up with impossible strength. He threw me onto the bed before I could react and then covered my body with his.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to fucking _murder_ this man for thinking he had the right to touch me.

His grubby hands pulled at my shirt, ripping it down the middle before his fingers pulled the cups of my bra apart. I was lying exposed in front of him and there wasn’t anything I could do.

Tears raced down my face and my breaths became terrified pants lifting through my lips. I tried to push his hands away from me hurriedly, but that only made him angry.

He grabbed my hands with a roar and pushed them in front of me, then he rolled me onto my stomach. He pinned my hands above me with only one of his giant paws. I struggled and kicked beneath him, wanting to somehow get away.

It didn’t work.

Instead, his fingers dug into the skin of my wrists and held tightly, cutting off the blood supply. His free hand tore the remnants of my shirt and bra from my body. I let out a sob when I felt his wet mouth hit the back of my neck.

He bit and sucked at my skin and I wanted to scream. Then his hand came to my pants. My eyes went wide and I bucked against him, trying with all my might to get him off me.

This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. This had to be some kind of sick nightmare that I couldn’t run away from. I let out a panicked scream when his hand found the button on my pants, undoing it, and then reefing the clothing from my legs.

The denim scratched against my skin at his speed, burning me slightly. I cried against him and then his hand was on my ass. I screeched when he grabbed me roughly, his hand palming and digging into the skin of my rear.

Then I felt his teeth come down to the waistband of my panties and he literally _bit_ into the material. It snapped underneath his force and suddenly I was naked before him.

“Shut up, you little whore,” he growled. Then he slapped my ass, making me jolt and sob from the pain. I couldn’t do anything. He had me pinned. He let go of my hands and instead used that hand to wrap around my neck and push me into the mattress.

My naked ass was up in the air for him and he slapped me again. I winced through my tears and cried into the mattress. There was nothing I could do about his strength and my arms were practically flailing. But, his position rendered me useless as I couldn’t reach any part of him without dislocating something.

His fingers grasped the back of my neck tightly and I screeched. His other hand, between slapping me, was trailing over other parts of me. He let his calloused fingers glide over my waist and my upper thighs.

I jolted when he brushed over my pussy and my clit. I screamed when he slapped me again. It was absolute fucking torture not being able to see what he was doing. Every touch was unanticipated in that I didn’t know where he would go next.

Then, my eyes widened as something inside me suddenly knew what he was going to do.

I screamed when he shoved two of his fingers inside me. His force was brutal and he wasn’t letting up. He thrust into me, ignoring my screams and pleads of protest, just like he’d ignored that other girl.

It was like he was deaf when it came to anything I was saying.

My pussy burned where he touched me and every part of me knew this was wrong. Then I heard him chuckle when he added a third finger and slapped me again at the same time.

I didn’t know when he’d let go of my neck, because I was rendered useless against his actions anyway.

But that chuckle… his enjoyment over my pain… it told me that he was loving this. He loved to see me struggle and he probably got off to my screams of pain. So… I went against my better judgement, and I shut my trap.

My jaw became locked as I let him use me. There was no way around it.

I cried silent tears when I felt him add a fourth finger out of frustration at my lack of response. My body shook back and forth with every movement of his fingers, and he started slapping me even harder – I didn’t think it was possible.

I could feel something wet on the tops of my thighs and for one sick moment, I thought maybe he’d caused me to bleed.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Then, with one final slap, he withdrew his fingers from my core and I slumped forward in a heap of tears and unimaginable pain. Everything I’d ever done was a mistake and I had no idea how I’d ended up here.

I didn’t deserve this.

“Fine,” Gervasi grunted darkly. “You don’t wanna scream? Well, baby, I’ve got something that’ll make you _holler_ …”

Then, my eyes widened through my tears as I heard the unmistakable sound of his zipper being undone.

.

**I’m so sorry…**


	28. 21 pt2

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (Part 2)**

**Lucas**

I don’t know what came over me, but something was pulling me back to that house. I had felt something in the pit of my stomach as soon as I’d left the gym and knew I needed to race straight there.

Konstantin had been only half surprised to see me when I had practically kicked down the door in my haste to get inside. He sent me a confident smirk full of malice as I rushed past him and up the stairs. I didn’t have time to think about that.

All I could think of was my girl. Something was wrong with her and I just knew it. I could feel it in my goddamn bones.

I didn’t even knock, I just busted down her door because I could feel it like a bad energy hanging in the room. My eyes widened when they set on the scene in front of me.

Lauren was lying naked on her bed and she was bleeding. Her ass was red raw and her face was slightly turned towards me. She looked like she’d been tortured. In the same split second as I realized what had happened to her, I noticed the culprit.

Gervasi was kneeling on the bed, having not noticed that I’d walked into the room. His pants were around his knees and his cock was in his hands, ram rod straight and pointing straight at Lauren.

His other hand was on her waist, pulling her closer to him.

My head filled with rage and my feet flew forward. I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and lifted him with minimal effort off the bed. Then I threw him across the room. I stood in between him and Lauren, making a protective stance in front of her.

I could hear her soft sobs behind me but all I could think was that I wanted to fucking kill him. He had dared to touch her, after I’d given them strict fucking orders. He had dared to touch what was mine.

I would kill him.

I watched as he got up, pulling his pants up as he did and shoving his cock back inside. I wanted to rip it off his body so that _he_ could know true pain. This man had provoked the beast. And he would get what was coming to him.

I usually kept my fighting for inside the ring, but right now my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I couldn’t hold myself back. I couldn’t believe he had thought it was fine to touch her.

Juice was fucking right that they’d treat her like the others as soon as I slept with her. This was all my fucking fault. I had practically condemned her to this. I felt fucking awful, but I couldn’t focus on any of that right now, because the Russian asshole was standing up and facing me.

His hands were clenched into fists and he stood in a fighting stance like me, only _I_ had murder etched into my eyes. He lunged for me and I let him. Letting him take the first shot would not only allow me to plead self-defense, but it would also make him overly cocky.

He managed to catch one weakly placed punch to my midsection and I grunted, before I laid into him. He deserved much worse. I landed punches and kicks to his face and his chest and his jaw and his legs and every fucking place that I could reach.

The guy couldn’t keep up with me, but I couldn’t have expected him to. I was a goddam professional, and he had messed with the wrong man. He had laid a hand on my woman and I was going to teach him a mother fucking lesson even if it killed him.

As soon as the thought of Lauren crossed my mind, I looked up for a moment. My eyes caught hers, and while she still laid immobile on the bed, her eyes were wide in horror.

She had never seen this side of me, and as she watched me land punch after punch to this man’s face, I could only imagine what she thought of me. I couldn’t stop my hands, though. Something stronger than I could control had come over me and brought out my inner demon.

She was seeing my fighting style for the first time, and my manic movements as I tried to protect her in the only way I knew how.

She would surely recoil from me now.

They always did.

She wouldn’t be able to handle me and who I truly was.

She wouldn’t be able to take it. But, I couldn’t stop. This stupid man had tried to hurt her, and so, I would kill him. I _needed_ to kill him.

I could feel the bloodlust singing in my veins with every punch and every hit and every kick. This devil deserved to die and I wouldn’t stop until his heart stopped fucking beating.

I kept landing punches and kicks to his body until he was black and bruised and passed out. I did it all to the symphony of Lauren’s sobs but I couldn’t stop. Not until I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders that hauled me off the man.

I landed on my feet with a curse, only to see Konstantin sneering at me. Then I looked to the door as the man I’d met on my first night here came into view. My eyes cast between them and Lauren.

I couldn’t let them touch her, too. Then behind the man, I could see a pair of eyes peeking through the doorway. They were followed by a gasp and a small rounded woman darted past the three of us and onto the bed.

She lay over Lauren and looked up at the master. Her eyes were pleading. I could only watch in silence as his eyes hardened. Something told me that he hadn’t been aware of Gervasi’s intentions with Lauren and that he wasn’t happy about it.

Without having to say a word, he gave Konstantin a look. Crooked-Nose lunged at me and grabbed my hands. Before I could struggle out of his grip, he managed to cuff me. Where he had gotten handcuffs from, I had no idea.

He restrained my hands behind my back and kept me there like that. I looked over at the woman with Lauren. I had never seen her before, but from Juice’s description, I could guess that she was Soraya – the pregnant woman he had fallen for.

I didn’t blame him. She was pretty in an understated kind of way.

Then I watched as the master walked over to Gervasi and picked the man up easily. He walked out of the room.

Before I could say anything else, Konstantin hauled me out of the room. I managed to catch Soraya’s eye on the way and she gave me a nod as she worried her lip between her teeth. She would keep my Lauren safe.

Juice had told me she could be trusted, and I had to hope that that was true.

As Konstantin shouldered me down the stairs and out of the house, I tried to get a few words out.

“Wait! She needs to go to a fucking hospital right now!” I yelled. “I will pay for whatever it takes!” I tried, hoping that their acceptance of my money before would somehow sway their intentions.

It didn’t work, though that is what I expected anyway.

“The Goddess is a registered nurse,” Konstantin muttered. “No hospital needed. Now, don’t ever come back. You’re not welcome here anymore, no matter the price you’re willing to pay.”

Before I could protest further, he unlocked the cuffs and shoved me out the front door, locking it. I didn’t have time to question who the fuck ‘The Goddess’ was, but I could only hope Konstantin was telling the truth.

I needed a new plan, and maybe now Juice was right.

I needed to tell my dad. I picked up my phone and dialed my friend’s number. He picked up on the fourth ring.

“Talon, dude, I was just about to call you,” Juice started. I cut him off.

“No time for pleasantries, Juice. You gotta get to this damn house ASAP! I just walked in on them raping her. I fucking beat the guy up but then they muscled me out and I can’t get back in. Maybe you can…”

Juice swore on the other end of the line.

“Fuck _, we cannot handle this shit right now_ ,” he muttered. “They’ve got fantastic fucking timing.” I frowned.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Juice sighed. “It’s the reason I was gonna call you, dude. It’s your dad… he’s just been admitted to Okeechobee General.”

My heart dropped. I couldn’t find any more words.

“I can come to the house, dude, but… we really need you here.”

.

**Well… _fuck_. **


	29. 22

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO**

**Lucas**

My whole world was falling apart.

I raced on my bike to the hospital as soon as Juice showed up at the house. I knew he could handle everything if he was allowed inside. Truth was, the only reason I really wanted him there was to make sure they didn’t try anything else with Lauren.

While his presence probably couldn’t do much, I was hoping it would.

But I couldn’t think about that right now. My head was in two places. One half was focused on Lauren and getting her the _hell_ out of there. The other half was worried to shit about my dad.

I had told him to lay off the smokes. His doctor had told him too, but he was a stubborn asshole. He just _had_ to push the fucking boundaries.

_Every._

_Damn._

_Time._

By the time I got to the hospital, there were a club’s worth of bikes parked outside. I rushed inside. Kickstand was standing by the front desk and he nodded when he saw me, guiding me over to him.

“How bad is he?” I asked, my voice kind of desperate. I mean, what could I say? I’d only lost my mom a year before. I wasn’t ready for my dad to go too.

Kickstand frowned, pursing his lips. I wanted to punch him if he didn’t answer me soon.

“Room 117. He’s stable but he had a heart attack at the club house. Fell down the stairs and then we rushed him here.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

“Thanks, man,” I muttered, patting his shoulder before I walked towards the West Wing where I knew his room was. I ignored the protests of the nurses around me, knowing that someone would explain to them who I was here for.

I raced down the corridors until I ended up at his door. When I opened it, Cora barreled straight into my chest. Her tears immediately drenched my tee but I didn’t care. I wrapped my arms around her, knowing it was what she needed.

Cora wasn’t the crying sort, but this had to have scared the shit out of her. We’d already lost one parent and I knew she’d taken it harder than I had, plus she had to see those fucking assholes as school every day so it wasn’t easy for her.

If she lost our dad too, all before she graduated highschool? I mean, she’d lose it. And I’d lose her. I doubt I’d be named her guardian seeing as she’s still underage which would run the risk of having her split up from me and put into the system.

I don’t think either of us could handle that. This shit had to be scaring her, I mean, she’d have to have been pulled out of class for this. I briefly wondered who had given her a ride but then I shook it off.

It didn’t matter how she got here; it was just important that we were all together.

“Where were you?” she muttered into my chest between sobs. I sighed, brushing a hand over her hair and back to comfort her. She eventually pulled back to look at me through tear-stained eyes.

“I just got held up somewhere,” I said, frowning. For some reason, I still couldn’t admit to her what was going on with me. She knew I’d met a girl but she was still too young to have to deal with the truth of Lauren’s situation.

Cora gripped my waist where she was hugging me and she gave me a confused but angry look. She was frustrated, that much I could tell. I decided that I’d have to talk to her about it all later, right now, I needed to be here for my dad.

I turned to the nurse that was by his side. My dad was lying unconscious on the hospital bed with a breathing tube in his nose. He was connected to all kinds of wires and machines. I’d never seen him like this.

The nurse gave me a reassuring smile so I guess at least _that_ was a good sign.

“He’s stable,” she said. “But, he had quite a nasty fall. His small heart episode managed to knock him out and he fell down a staircase. You’re… _friends_ rushed him here and we managed to get his heart stable again. Then we gave him a few x-rays while he was unconscious.”

“He broke his arm in two places,” Cora filled in for me. “He won’t be able to ride for weeks ‘til it heals…”

I frowned. My dad would _not_ be happy with that news.

The nurse nodded in agreement when I looked up at her.

“So, what caused the heart attack,” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. The nurse gave me a disapproving look.

“You tell me,” she said. “Has he been smoking again despite doctor’s orders?”

I sighed, mostly in defeat. “You _know_ we can’t stop him,” I said, waving my hand. “I mean I tried where I could, but the man is stubborn.”

The nurse shook her head at me and I sighed, looking away. Cora was staring at our father with her bottom lip worrying between her teeth. I sighed, wrapping an arm around her.

“I understand, honey, don’t worry,” the nurse said. “My husband was the same way. But, in the end, if he doesn’t want to get better himself, then there isn’t much we can do but sit by and watch.”

Cora sniffled. “Surely there’s _something_ we can do?” she pleaded.

I frowned. I already knew the answer to that one, too.

“I’m afraid not, my dear,” the nurse said. “Like you said, you can’t stop him from smoking entirely, all you can do is try.”

I watched as Cora’s lip began to wobble and she walked out of my embrace. I turned my head as she left the room, the door closing softly behind her. I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

“I’m sorry about her, she’s just not taking it well,” I said. “We already lost our mom recently so this scare is a bit much for her.”

The nurse nodded with a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry to hear that, honey. But, have you talked to your father about the loss of your mother? It might be the reason he refuses to quit smoking…?”

I sighed, nodding my head.

“Yeah I’ll talk to him about it,” I said, my voice low. “Do you know when he might wake up?”

The nurse sighed, looking down at the relaxed face of her patient. “I’d give it a few hours. The drugs that we had to give him for the arm and to remedy his heart might keep him out for a while. You’re welcome to stay in here – your sister, too – just ring this button when he wakes up, yeah?” she asked, holding up the orange ‘Nurse Call’ button hanging from my father’s bed.

I nodded and then watched as the nurse moved from the room. She shut the door quietly behind her and I sighed, looking at my dad for a moment before I moved to the chair across from his bed.

Sinking down into it, I took out my phone and began going through all my messages from Juice.

Apparently he’d been let inside and was currently in the same room as Lauren and Soraya. Lauren was officially patched up but she was passed out, which made me worried. It was killing me that I couldn’t be there and that I wasn’t able to bring her to the hospital for better care.

They had rape kits here that could help her, and actual trained medical professionals. Instead I had to rely on the word of a sex-trafficking criminal that she could be taken care of.

I sighed angrily before putting my phone away. I knew I couldn’t leave the hospital and go anywhere to waste time, so I turned on the television and watched a rerun of _Jurassic Park_ to waste the time.

.

Cora came back to the room after an hour or so and she was carrying a can of Coke and a handful of chocolate chip cookies wrapped in a napkin. She handed them to me with a sad smile and I put them down on the table beside me.

Then Cora gave me a look that broke my heart and I frowned, opening my arms up to her. She crawled up on my lap like she used to when she was little – well… little- _er_ – and then I wrapped my arms around her.

She didn’t cry like she had before, but I could hear her uneven breaths. She buried her head in my chest and I sighed, stroking her long brown hair to soothe both her and myself.

“How much longer do you think he has?” she mumbled, the sound of her voice muffled by my shirt. I froze, halting my stroking movements for a moment while I considered her question.

I didn’t want to think about the answer, but I guess it became necessary to start preparing for the worst at some point.

I continued stroking her hair before I sighed out my reply. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “But, probably not much longer if he keeps this up…”

Cora was silent for a while, taking in my admission. Then I heard the machine connected to dad’s heart speed up a little. I looked up to see him struggling to sit up.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he grumbled, his voice low and scratchy. Cora gasped, jumping off my lap and rushing to the side of the bed. She put an arm around his shoulders, attempting to help him up but it was a bit awkward with his broken arm.

When he was finally seated upright, I turned to see Cora glaring at our father.

She practically tackled him in a hug and growled into his chest. “Why the fuck would you keep smoking when the doctor said no! How stupid could you be?”

I watched as my father frowned at his daughter’s language but he didn’t say anything. He hugged her back for a moment and I could see the regret in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair. “Old habits die hard, you know?”

Cora leaned back and glared at him.

“That’s bull, Dad, and you know it. You should have tried harder.”

Our father sighed and nodded, accepting that he was in the wrong for once. Cora stepped back and made room for me to step in. I gave my father a hug. While it wasn’t something that we would normally do, I still loved my father, and in some ways, he was still the man who swung me around by the wrists in the playground when I was a kid.

While I’d grown up some, I still needed him. As scared as Cora was about the whole situation, I was too, I just couldn’t be the one to show it. So, in our hug, I made sure that he knew I was worried too, and that I was thankful he was still around for now.

He might’ve been a pain in my ass when it came to club shit, but he was still my Dad.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said when I pulled away.

He gave me a nod of understanding, holding my gaze when we let go and sighed before leaning back against his pillows. I reached over and pressed the call button for the nurse.

She came bustling in only minutes later. Cora and I sat back and let her do her thing for a while. I couldn’t help but keep checking my phone every two seconds for any messages from Juice but there were none.

Cora noticed my obsessive actions and rose her eyebrows in question as she snacked on her cookies but I waved her off. She didn’t need to be involved with this right now.

After the nurse left, a couple of brothers came by to chat with Dad while Cora and I sat around. In all honesty, I didn’t know what was supposed to happen now. I knew that I needed to tell my dad about everything with Lauren, but now just didn’t seem like the right time.

The brothers stayed for a few hours, just talking and keeping my dad entertained, until Cora spoke up and asked if she could go home to grab some of her homework.

“Kickstand can drive you home,” Dad said, nodding towards the other man. Cora nodded and walked over to give our father another hug.

“I’ll come back after. I already asked the nurse and she said I could stay the night with you seeing as you’re my guardian anyway. They’re gonna wheel a bed in here for me despite their rules about overnight stays.”

Dad nodded, waving her off and then we both watched as she and Kickstand, and the rest of the brothers made their way from the room.

Then it was just me and my Old Man.

After a while of sitting in silence, he spoke up.

“So, tell me what’s got you so worried over your phone,” he said. My eyes widened. I had thought Cora was the only one who’d noticed, especially because my dad was so occupied with all his guests.

But this was the President we were talking about. Nothing gets past him.

“I’m broken, not blind, son.”

I sighed, looking up at him carefully.

“It’s uh….” Was I really about to do this? Was I really about to tell him about the girl and the sex ring I’d been keeping from him for weeks? He wouldn’t react well knowing I’d kept secrets from him. Especially one as big and as illegal and as damn immoral is this.

He looked at me pointedly before his eyes widened and he nodded once with a smirk.

“Ahhh. I get it,” he said, mustering a grin. I frowned at him. He shook his head, waving me off. “Don’t worry. I was the same when I met Carter. You’ll be pussy whipped for a while but hopefully it’ll turn into something more.”

I frowned at my father. It was odd to hear him talk about my mom after he had ignored the subject out of mourning for a year. He had loved my mother so fiercely that I knew he’d never get over her. And I wouldn’t blame him. My mother was a ray of sunshine in a dark, dark world, and she and my dad were a perfect match.

Soulmates, my grandmother had said. She had spouted all this crap about fates and destiny and tied it all back to some ancient American myth. I’d eaten all that crap up as a kid, hoping one day I’d find a girl as right for me as my parents were for eachother.

I sighed, nodding my head once in answer to his question.

“So, who is she?” he asked. I pursed my lips. How was I supposed to start this conversation? My father thought I’d met a nice, normal girl. How was I supposed to break it to him that she was in real danger, and all because of me and my stupid sex-drive.

“Um, her name is Lauren,” I started. My father nodded, interested. Then I frowned and looked up at him. He must have seen the turmoil in my eyes because his grin dropped and morphed into a frown as his eyebrows knitted together.

“What did you do?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “It’s a bit complicated, Dad. And it’s a long story so, just let me get it all out before you get pissed, yeah?” I asked.

His glare only deepened but he nodded his head respectively before he allowed me to go on.

“Okay, so, a few weeks ago Juice took me to the strip club. There was this girl who danced for me and then afterwards I was in the back and I heard this godawful scream. I wanted to investigate but Juice got kicked out and so I had to go with him.

“I went back to the club to try and find out what had happened and then I saw these two bug guys hauling some unconscious girl into the back of a van. I followed the van out the old widow’s house on the same road as Beast’s Old Lady. You know the one?”

My father nodded in recognition so I kept going.

“Then I went to talk to Arnold and Jax to see what I could find out about the house. Arnold told me they were holding sex parties there and that I needed a password to get in. So that night, Juice and I went because the whole thing seemed so sketchy to me and I was afraid that they were going to hurt that girl.

“When I got there, turns out Arnold was telling the truth and these guys had about a dozen girls locked up downstairs and were forcing them into sex. I’m talking like, these girls were on leashes and collars like dogs and these men were raping them.”

I watched as my father started to glare at me. I could see it was out of anger at the girls’ situation, and partly at me for not saying anything earlier.

“Anyway,” I continued. “The leader guy had this one girl next to him and apparently she was a virgin.” My father must have seen the way my tone of voice changed, and the expression on my face because his suddenly morphed into one of understanding.

“And that was Lauren?”

I nodded in confirmation. “Anyway, they were asking a high price for her and I had this uncontrollable need to protect her so I paid it and it got her a private room and a modicum of decency and respect.”

“And that’s where you’ve been going every day for a month? Visiting her?” he confirmed. My eyes widened in surprise at him. I hadn’t known that he knew that. My father rolled his eyes. “I’m not stupid, son. I know when a guy is chasing some tail, especially when it’s my own kid.”

I sighed, taking in his words but then I nodded.

“Alright, uhhh… yeah. I kept going to see her. I wanted her to trust me and I wanted to protect her and I wanted to keep her safe. Actually I wanted to get her and all of those girls out of that damn house but I had to figure out a way first…”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” he asked. “You could have used the club.”

I frowned, nodding. “I know I could have. But, I knew I’d need some other evidence as to what these assholes were doing with these girls. Juice and I came up with something.”

My father leaned in, his interest obviously piqued. I sighed.

“One of the girls in the house is pregnant. We sort of came to the conclusion that they’re using these girls to have kids and then stealing the kids and taking them overseas…”

My father’s glare hardened at the idea. I frowned.

“It gets worse though,” I said. “We only came to this conclusion _after_ I’d already slept with Lauren last night.”

“Taking her virginity and putting her in danger of being used by other men,” my father said, putting two and two together faster than I had.

I nodded solemnly. He sighed, eyeing me.

“So, then what happened? You went to see her today, too?”

I nodded, grimacing as I remembered what had happened only hours ago.

“Yeah. I got this horrible feeling that something wrong was happening to her. I raced over there and walked in to find her being raped by one of the guys that runs the place,” I admitted, my teeth grinding and my fists clenching in anger. My father laid a hand on my shoulder to get me to calm down.

“I don’t know what came over me, Dad,” I whispered. “I just had all of this rage inside me and I pulled him off her and starting beating the absolute living shit out of him til he passed out. Then one of the other guys came and kicked me out. I sent Juice over there to stay with her to protect her because I got the call to come here, but now honestly I don’t know what to do.”

My dad frowned at me.

He was silent for a little while. Then…

“Do you think you could have with her, what I had with your mother?” he asked, his voice low.

I sighed, wringing my shaking hands together. I looked up at my father desperately.

“I think I already do,” I whispered. My father nodded, his eyebrows raising before he squeezed my shoulders.

“Then you already know what you have to do,” he said, his voice holding that confident finality that I knew came from his role as President.

“You go after your girl, son,” he said. “You have the full force of the club behind you to put those sons of bitches behind bars for what they’ve done to those girls.”

I looked at him with wide eyes and parted lips. He gave me a reassuring look, his eyes hard and his lips pursed.

“But what about you?” I asked, my voice low. His accident was the reason I was here and not already over there.

My father sighed but gave me a determined look. “I’m not going anywhere right now,” he said. “I promise you. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

I pursed my lips but pulled my father into another hug. He slapped me on the back twice before we broke away.

“Now chop chop, kid. The longer she sits in that hellhole, the worse you’ll feel. Get crackin’, Talon.”

“Yes, sir,” I nodded before I raced from the room.

.

**Slap upside the head from daddy dearest.**


	30. 23

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE**

**Lucas**

It had been a few hours since I’d left the hospital. I’d been at the clubhouse trying to convince my father’s men of my cause.

They were skeptical at first because their Pres wasn’t here to vouch for me.

“Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me,” Muggs voiced, rolling his eyes. “If there was a pussy party happening in this town, I’d know about it.”

I grit my teeth at his disgusting statement. I hated that he was proud of the statement he’d made, but that was the kind of filth that he was. If I was in charge, I’d kick him out.

I watched as Kickstand sent him a long and hard look and Muggs finally rolled his eyes and shut up.

“This is serious. Those girls have done nothing wrong,” I said. “They’re being raped and abused in there and it needs to be stopped.”

They hadn’t needed much more convincing. Juice wasn’t here to back up my claims, but one of the prospects ended up speaking up. Apparently, they knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who’d been to the house. I was pissed that the kid hadn’t told anyone but in the end I knew that I was being hypocritical because I hadn’t told anyone either.

After that, they’d all pretty much lined up to help me.

And it was at that moment that I finally found a moment to check my phone. I’d turned it off so as not to get distracted when I was briefing all the guys at Chapel. My eyes widened as I was scrolling through a hundred texts from Juice.

**Dude need you here NOW!**

**Seriously not kidding!**

**Dude, Soraya has gone into labor!**

**Your girl is freaking out, and so am I, and we’ve barricaded the door so the other guys can’t get in. They don’t know she’s having the baby yet but there’s only so long we can keep her quiet.**

**They’ll come busting through the door any minute now dude. Seriously get your ass over here now!**

I didn’t need any more convincing. I started yelling for brothers to get their shit together. I spotted Coraline as I was making my way through the house and to the front door. Her hand caught on my arm and she looked up at me with confusion in her wide eyes.

“What the hell is going on?” she demanded. I sighed, trying to shrug her off. I knew she deserved an explanation because that was the decent thing to do, but I just couldn’t think about it right now.

My head was being pulled apart every which way and all I could think about was Lauren and Juice barricading themselves in that small room while that poor girl went into labor.

“I’m sorry, Cora, I just can’t right now,” I sighed, trying to shrug her off and keep moving. Cora wasn’t having it, though. I should have expected nothing less. That girl would always demand answers. That’s just who she was.

“That’s bull, Lou,” she griped. “You’re seriously gonna have a hundred guys rushing somewhere urgently from this house without the say so of dad and then not tell me anything? You’re seriously gonna leave me hanging like that?”

I sighed, running a hand over my face. I didn’t have the time to argue with her about this. Lauren didn’t have the time, and neither did her friend or that baby.

“Cora, seriously,” I said, exasperated. “Yes, that’s what’s happening right now. Look, all you need to know is that someone is in trouble and I need the help of the club to go save her and its fucking urgent enough that I don’t have the fucking time to sit here and chat!”

My sister glared at me for my tone. I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

“Look, I’ll explain later, seriously I will,” I said. “I promise. This is just above me right now.”

Cora sighed, glaring at me still but then she rolled her eyes and began walking away. As she started walking up the staircase, dodging prospects and various members getting ready, she turned back to me.

“If you do not explain within the two seconds that you get back, I will castrate you in your sleep,” she promised, eyeing me with frustration. I nodded hurriedly in her direction, knowing she was only slightly joking but I wasn’t willing to test her on it. And then she sighed. “Now go rescue your girl.”

My eyes widened in shock. I hadn’t said anything, but somehow Cora had still known.

“You didn’t have to say anything,” she said, answering the shock in my eyes. “Your face said it all.” Then she disappeared up the stairs leaving me with my mouth hanging open. I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though.

I felt my phone buzz with another worried text from Juice.

**They’re tryna kick the door down, dude. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!?**

I kicked my ass into gear. Only minutes later, my club and I were armed to the teeth and heading out to the house. I sent one of the prospects to Gage’s mom’s house to evacuate her for the day in case things went sour. I didn’t need Gage coming home to find that his mom had been hurt somehow because of me.

When we made it to the house, I raced to the door. I knew it would be locked, so I shot the door handle and kicked beside it. It cracked itself open and swung before hitting against the wall with a loud bang.

“The girls are being kept in the basement,” I told my men, “But there are heaps of rooms upstairs too that need checking.”

The guys got cracking and stormed downstairs. A couple other followed me as I took the stairs two at a time until I was outside Lauren’s bedroom. I frowned as I realized that the door didn’t seem damaged at all.

I briefly wondered whether I could have gotten the wrong door, or maybe Juice had been lying. But then I heard the scream from the other side of the door and I knew I was in the right spot.

I barged it open.

My eyes fell on the pool of blood on the floor and immediately widened. The pregnant girl was lying with a bloody mass in her arms and was nestled between Lauren’s legs. My girl looked up at me with a broken and scared look as she wrapped her arms around the other woman.

Soraya was sobbing.

Juice was on the other side of the room, fighting with Konstantin. The two were very unevenly matched, and Juice was covered in blood, too. I didn’t know if it was from Soraya giving birth, or if it was a result of his current fight.

I didn’t have time to question it.

I fell to my knees beside the girls and looked down at Soraya. She was breathing haggardly and shallowly. Her eyes were squinted in pain and I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew she was dying. People didn’t just lose _that_ much blood in childbirth.

That wasn’t natural.

“She’s hemorrhaging,” Lauren whispered as her fingers gripped at her friend. Soraya shook her head in pain.

“Please, no,” she managed to gasp out when I moved to help her in some way. “Just take my baby, please.”

I tried to take the bloodied mass from her arms, but I didn’t need to hold the kid to know. I could tell it was a boy, but he was still. Too still. And too silent.

Soraya was crying and trying to shove him into my arms. “Please save him,” she whispered. “Save my Oscar…”

All I could do was nod mutely as I tried to reach for the child, but then before I could take him, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and I heard Lauren gasp. She tightened her arms around her friend but her friend was gone, clutching her poor stillborn.

The sight was harrowing, but my focus was pulled away moments later as I heard the distressed cry lifting from my friend’s lips. My eyes tore towards Juice in time to watch him brunt a punch across the jaw as his eyes were glued to Soraya.

I watched him watch as the poor girl slumped with her last breath and her fingers loosened around her baby. His pale blue body shifted slightly in her arms but he didn’t fall. The mother and her child rested together. I could hear Lauren’s short quiet gasps as she mourned her friend and then Juice let out an almighty roar.

He lunged at Konstantin and the monster was unleashed. The trained professional fighter that he had repressed for years was finally resurfacing, but he had become a reclusive killer in his time away.

I saw murder flash in Juice’s eyes with a vengeance for the girl he must have loved. She would have been the first girl to capture his heart, and he’d just watched her and her son fall from the earth.

If that had been Lauren, I doubt I’d have acted any differently. I snapped back to my girl to see that she was rocking with Soraya back and forth as she cried silently. I felt useless. I hadn’t done anything since I’d walked into this room.

I knew I had to act. The least I could do was help Juice. As I turned to get up and join him, I watched silver flash.

I froze as I heard a thud against the floor. Lauren’s eyes snapped up too. 

My jaw dropped when Juice caught my eye. Then my eyes trailed down to where his hands were grasping at his midsection. They were stained bloody and my words caught in my throat.

I watched my best friend fall to his knees as his fingers slipped over the metallic handle of the knife buried inside him.

My ears were ringing and I briefly heard a feminine scream from my right but I felt frozen.

.

**I just did a bad thing… I regret the thing I did…**


	31. 24 pt1

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (Part 1)**

**Lucas**

I ran to my friend to catch him before he fell. Konstantin had moved away and he was standing in the corner of the room, his eyes glued to Soraya and her child.

Who… was _his_ child too, I guess.

The look in his eyes was a mix of confusion and anger and a hint of disappointed sadness. The twinge of it though, didn’t seem like remorse for the girl’s life but rather for the loss of investment in her baby.

The man looked livid. I cradled Juice as he gave harsh breaths in my arms. But then my eyes widened as I realized I’d left Lauren unprotected.

_Where the hell was my fucking club?_

My head snapped to Konstantin like I was in a bad comic cartoon and I watched in horror as his eyes hardened in anger. He lunged for her and she dived out of the way, abandoning her friend.

When she rolled over to face Konstantin, my eyes widened to realize she had a gun in her hands.

_Where the fuck–_

My hand flew to my jeans where I’d shoved my Glock into the back of my pants, only to find that it wasn’t there. It must have fallen out at some point. I watched as Lauren held up the gun with shaky hands.

I didn’t even know if she’d shot the damn thing before.

Juice grasped at my hand, distracting me. His grip was tight and his eyes were wide. His breath was sputtering through his lips and I didn’t know who to prioritize.

“Don’t come near me,” Lauren whispered, her voice shaking as much as her hands. Konstantin grinned cruelly.

“You don’t have the balls, Angel.”

I watched something flicker in her eye, something stubborn that I’d only seen glimpses of a few times before. But then before she could do anything, the door slammed open again to reveal Gervasi with a huge cut on his forehead, leaking into his eye.

Everything happened so fast after I watched him assess the room – the dead girl and her baby; the gun pointed at his friend; Juice cradled in my arms with a stab wound in his midsection.

His eyes hardened and locked onto Lauren in a matter of milliseconds and then I knew I’d made my choice. I abandoned Juice, dropping him to the floor as Gervasi lunged for Lauren.

I watched her eyes widen in horror before her fingers squeezed over the trigger. The loud snap of the gun going off was ringing in my ears and stopped Gervasi in his tracks.

Then the three of us – Lauren, Gervasi and I – watched as Konstantin fell to the floor with his lips parted in shock. His eyes were wide and dead as he slumped onto the ground. I eyed the clean hole in the middle of his forehead from the corner of my eye before I snapped back into action.

_Damn, the girl was a good shot._

Lauren dropped the gun in shock, not believing she’d actually let fly on the trigger. There were tears streaming down her face as she realized she’d just taken a life. I mean, sure it was someone who had kidnapped, abused and tortured her, but taking a life wasn’t easy.

I managed to jump in front of her right as Gervasi made it over and I slammed my fist into his head just like I had only hours earlier. The blood on his forehead was dripping down into his eyes, making him stumble slightly, but he was still landing punches, too.

I needed to get him down or somehow out of the room, because I needed to get back to Juice. Too much shit was going on in here for me to handle and I had no idea if reinforcements were coming or if my club was still too damn busy with the girls downstairs.

.

**Lauren**

I crawled over to Juice as Lucas laid into Gervasi like he had only hours before. My day had been a fucking rollercoaster since last night and all of it was honestly too much for anyone to handle.

I had watched Juice try and deliver Soraya’s baby, and then both of their horror and distraught at finding out that the baby was already dead. Then Konstantin had burst in right on her final push and ripped Juice away.

He’d never even held the baby.

Then she had bled out before she could pass the placenta. I still couldn’t believe that she was gone. It was only hours ago that we were chatting in the garden but it seemed like a lifetime ago.

Her screams would probably ring in my ears until the day I died.

Then not to mention the image of what _I_ had just done.

I didn’t even know how it all came over me. I just knew that one second I was holstering Lucas’ gun in my hand and then the next second, Konstantin was collapsed on the floor with death in his eyes.

Bile had risen up my throat in that exact moment but I had to hold it in. I’d just taken a life. For someone never having shot a gun before, I had just done the one thing considered worst in the world.

I cradled Lucas’ friend in my arms as he had done before and then looked down at his face through bleary eyes. The man was the same size as Lucas, if not bigger. He was built like an ox and I’d probably have thought of him as terrifying up until I’d seen how he was with Soraya.

His touch had been gentle… comforting… soothing…

_Loving…_

And now Soraya was dead, and her poor baby, too. And this man was lying in my lap about to end with the same fate. I couldn’t concentrate on Lucas. I knew that he had enough anger inside him to finish Gervasi, and for once, that fact didn’t completely terrify me.

Instead, it actually brought me some comfort.

If I had been questioning the credibility of his feelings for me before… well, I wasn’t now. I knew that he hadn’t been lying to me, and all his gifts and time spent with me were not just to get in my pants.

It felt odd to have someone actually care about me now… someone that I maybe even trusted… more than anyone else in the world.

My hand cradled at Juice’s face as he lay on his back with his hands over the hilt of the knife in his stomach. I knew I couldn’t pull it out because that would only make him bleed out faster, but I thought that maybe I should.

He didn’t deserve to suffer like this. I should have shown him the kindness that he showed Soraya and her baby and me.

He had tried to protect them, and while in vain, it was still admirable.

He reached up to cradle my hand over his cheek and he caught my eye.

“He’s a good man,” he whispered to me, tears falling down his cheeks as he winced in pain. My eyebrows furrowed. _Was he talking about Lucas?_ He had to be…

I nodded mutely at him, not knowing what else to say.

“Just hold on,” I managed to say, my voice pitchy with desperation. “We’ll get help. You just need to hold on.”

Juice shook his head minutely, grunting. “There’s nothing you can do…”

I sobbed, wiping a tear away from his eye.

“Just promise me… you’ll trust him.” His eyes were wide as he stared up into my soul. I bit my lip around a cry, nodding.

“I will. I already do,” I promised. “More than he’ll ever know…”

Juice nodded, a wistful smile appearing on his lips as his breathing started to get real shallow.

“ _At least I can… be with her_ ,” he whispered. Then my eyes widened as his lids closed and his chest stopped rising and falling steadily. I pressed a hand over his heart with wild fervor as my lips parted frantically.

There was nothing. I couldn’t feel anything underneath my fingertips. Without knowing what else to do, I started to shake Juice’s body with a sharp cry.

“No! No, please. _Please!_ ” I said, my voice cracking on the words. I looked up at the man’s face. He looked peaceful under the smear of blood on his skin.

The tears streamed down my face as I held him.

Then I heard the hard, heartbroken roar from beside me. I looked up to see Lucas’ face twist in anguish before he landed one final kick to Gervasi’s stomach, knocking him over. Lucas looked over at me desperately and my eyes widened.

Then I noticed the gun near my side and I picked it up before tossing it over to him.

Lucas stood above my rapist, towering over him like the image of death itself.

His feet were planted wide and steady as he held the weapon at arm’s length. I turned my eyes back to Juice to watch over his peaceful resting features when I heard Lucas cock the gun.

I listened to Gervasi whimper out, begging Lucas’ not to kill him.

And then I heard the gunshot.

Gervasi hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, and it was only then that I looked up, searching for Lucas’ eyes for some kind of comfort.

He wasn’t looking at me, though. He was staring into the face of his dead friend. I watched him wipe a tear from his eye before he took two steps towards me. He pulled me up by the arms and grabbed my face hurriedly.

Before I knew what was happening, his lips were mashed against mine.

Then just as quickly, they were gone, Lucas was stepping away and his chest was heaving with the thick pants of his breath.

“I have to go find the others,” he whispered. “I have to kill that son of a bitch who brought this on all of you.”

I bit my lip, hugging myself before I nodded. Lucas’ hard gaze found mine for a moment.

“I’ll come with you,” I said, my voice low. Lucas winced and shook his head once with finality.

“No,” he said, his voice hard. “I can’t risk it. I can’t risk losing you…”

I bit my lip. There was something in his eyes, behind the film of violence and anger that told me I needed to listen to him right now.

“I need you to stay here. I need you to not move until I come back. Can you do that?” he asked, his eyes pleading and his voice rough. I nodded weakly, not knowing what else to do.

He was wearing a cold mask, dejected from the world; unfeeling. This was not the Lucas I knew, but it was the only one I could trust in that moment.

He was all I knew. I had been thrust into a world and had to find my own bearings.

Lucas nodded once, then hesitated for a moment before turning and storming out the door, leaving me alone in the room with five dead bodies not knowing who to trust.

I couldn’t bear to stay in that room, though. So, I locked myself in my bathroom and cowered into the dirty tub there.

I could hear the banging and the shouting and the claps of gunshots ringing through the house as Lucas went after the Master. I could only pray that he would come back to me.

_All_ of him would come back to me. I would make sure of it.

.

**I feel like that image of sad Pikachu rn**


	32. 24 pt2

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (Part 2)**

**Lauren**

I hadn’t slept in days.

After I’d made it out of that house, I just couldn’t get comfortable. It didn’t help that Lucas hadn’t come to see me.

It made me wonder where I stood with him.

I didn’t even really know if he was okay. Instead I was left to worry that something had happened to him.

After I’d gone into the bathroom to get away from… everything... It was a few hours before anyone came looking for me. I didn’t recognize the man who had come to the room, but he was wearing the same motorcycle vest that Lucas wore.

I had been hesitant to trust him, but by that point, the house had become pretty quiet and I was starting to think that everything was over. He had the kind of wrinkles around his eyes that maybe he spent a lot of time smiling.

The patch on his breast said ‘Kickstand’. I had no idea what it meant, but I made the decision to go with him. He gave me his jacket to wear, seeing as I’d been shaking from the shock of the five bodies in the next room.

I wanted to be able to take Soraya and Juice and baby Oscar with me. I wanted to give them a proper funeral. But, when the man had led me out of the bathroom, the bedroom was empty and surprisingly clean.

My eyebrows had furrowed in instant confusion. I hadn’t even heard anyone in that room while I’d cowered in the bathtub. It was so clean that it made me wonder whether all of that shit had even happened…

But I _knew_ it had.

I would never get over the feeling of holding that gun as it released that bullet.

And I would never be able to forget the heartbroken scream that had lifted from Juice’s lips as Soraya had passed with her baby clutched in her weak hands.

I shook my head, rolling over in the unfamiliar bed that I’d been occupying the last few days. Kickstand had led me from the house and into a giant SUV waiting outside the house. It had been the first time I’d seen the front of my house of horrors and I wasn’t surprised to notice that it was in almost empty street in the back streets of a small town.

The trip away from that whore house was short lived. I was alone in the back of the car, so had had no idea what was going on with the other girls and if they’d been taken from the house too.

Then the SUV had shown up to some huge estate and been ushered inside. After going through rows of a few small houses, the car pulled up at a gigantic McMansion that seemed to be the centric house of all those in the estate.

But, despite its size, the house had seemed empty to me.

Kickstand had helped me inside and up the stairs into another bedroom. Then he’d nodded at me and kind of just left me standing outside the door. I didn’t know what else to do, so I had kind of just turned in a circle to look at my surroundings.

I had thought I’d spotted two brown eyes staring at me from a crack in another door down the hall, but I couldn’t be sure because the door was pushed shut quick smart. I frowned before turning back to this room.

I had knocked twice on the door but there was no answer, so I just pushed it open and made my way inside. The room was simple enough as I stared around but I immediately felt comfortable.

I didn’t know if it was the lingering smell in the air, or if it was the presence of a few framed photos on the bedside table. They were showing a family of four, the young son and daughter smiling happily with their parents.

I recognized the look in that little boy’s eyes and I knew instantly that this was Lucas’ room.

That small fact didn’t matter though, because he proceeded to leave me alone in that room for three days. There had been a note shoved under the door on my first night there, and the handwriting was distinctly feminine, telling me that I was welcome to venture downstairs for any meal I might have but that otherwise a tray would just be left outside the door for me if I didn’t feel comfortable socializing with strangers.

I liked that whoever it was had gone out of their day to warn me with the note instead of just showing up or demanding anything. It made me feel a little more settled.

But I didn’t go downstairs. I wasn’t ready for that.

Instead I spent those days in Lucas’ room and I was left to wonder what had happened to the other girls.

My questions were answered on the third day. I was sitting by the window because it comforted me to be able to stare outside into a front yard that wasn’t overrun. Plus, I liked to see the comings and goings of the men who frequented this house.

They were mostly middle-aged men. They all rode up on their loud motorcycles and were wrapped in those leather jackets just like Lucas always had been. They all wore carefree smiles as they stepped up the porch steps and made their way inside.

And on the third day, I watched them all rock up surrounding a few more SUVs. Then I’d watched through the window as a dozen or so girls were ushered carefully from the car and inside. They all looked okay physically, and I wondered where they’d been.

When I’d heard footsteps beginning to climb the stairs, I couldn’t help myself. I moved towards the door and laid my ear against it, trying to hear something… anything…

I frowned when I came up with nothing, then I sighed as my hand fell over the doorknob. I bit my lip but I realized I’d already made my decision. I turned the handle and pulled the door open a crack so that I could stare out into the hallway.

The girls were being ushered into empty rooms and I spotted Faye amongst the group. She looked like she’d gotten some kind of medical attention, which made me glad. I was happy that they hadn’t been rotting inside that house since I’d left, and instead had been getting the care that they needed with trained professionals.

I overheard a few sentences that confirmed my suspicions and then I shut the door.

There was still no sign of Lucas.

I sighed as I sat up in Lucas’ bed. It was the middle of the night and I couldn’t sleep. My mind was racing with images of pools of blood and the silver hilt of a knife and the bruised blue skin of a suffocated baby.

I saw a nightmare every time I closed my eyes. And there was nothing I could do about it.

No matter how many showers I took, I couldn’t wash the blood from my hands.

.

It took a few more days, but I eventually ventured outside of the bedroom. It almost gave me a panic attack, but I did it.

I did it in the middle of the night, so that I could acclimate myself with my surroundings without having to run into anyone just yet.

I made my way downstairs and snooped around a little. The den was large, and there was a huge oak door on the opposite side that was locked. I didn’t know what was in there but I was fine with not finding out just yet.

The kitchen was huge too, and it made my heart jealous for a moment. My family had come from humble beginnings and so a large galley style kitchen like this was always a pipe dream.

But, what shocked me most was finding out I wasn’t alone in there.

The fridge door closed as I rounded the corner, revealing a small girl with dark wavy hair. She had a meatball sub hanging between her lips and her hand and her eyes widened when she noticed me there.

She jumped slightly and took a step back. The girl didn’t look older than maybe fourteen. I knew who she was.

Lucas had waxed lyrical about her.

Her eyes were wide as she took me in though, and I had the overwhelming feeling that she was sizing me up like I was the last person to be picked in gym and she was trying to figure out if she wanted me on her team or not.

She took the sub out of her mouth and tried to chew her gigantic bite. I rose an eyebrow at her and hesitated. Maybe I could still run away?

Then she swallowed and grinned at me.

“I’m Cora,” she whispered, extending her hand and walking up to me. I couldn’t help my reaction. I shrunk away from her when she moved too quickly towards me, slightly spooked.

I felt horrible when I watched her face fall as I thought I’d made her feel like she’d done something wrong. From what Lucas had told me about her, she was a curious girl who got overexcited. I didn’t mean to dampen her spirit.

“I know,” I managed to whisper. “Your brother liked to talk about you…”

Cora grinned, nodding once. Then she looked at me expectantly. I frowned, not knowing what she wanted.

“And your name is…?” she asked, her eyebrow quirking. I frowned. Had Lucas not mentioned me? I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. Cora noticed my confused hesitation and shrugged.

“Don’t feel too bad about it,” she said. “He doesn’t like to talk to me about anyone he’s dating…”

I nodded, sighing and biting my lip timidly. Cora waited for a moment but then seemed to realize I wasn’t going to answer her, so she nodded and grabbed her sandwich again.

She gave me a sympathetic smile, sighing slightly as she walked past me. I turned to watch her go and when she made it to the stairs, my mouth fell open.

“I’m Lauren,” I managed to get out. Cora froze on the steps before she turned and gave me a full-blown smile.

“Well it’s nice to finally meet you then, Lauren,” she grinned. “I’ll let you get back to snooping. I should be in bed anyway…” she giggled. I couldn’t help it, I rolled my eyes at the girl with a small smile.

Her eyes sparked as she succeeded at breaking through my walls only slightly. Then she made her way up the stairs again.

I didn’t spend too much more time downstairs before I headed up behind her. One thing did make me speed up a little bit. Someone walked in through the front door as I was halfway up the staircase.

His brown hair was unbrushed and he looked incredibly disheveled.

His eyes caught mine making me pause for a moment. I couldn’t ignore those brown eyes of his. I could see the shock in them at seeing me, because that emotion was probably reflected in my eyes too.

I didn’t stay long, and he seemed frozen by the door, so I scurried upstairs and locked myself back in his bedroom.

It was the first time I’d seen him in the better part of a week. It was the first piece of anything that I’d received to tell me that he was still even alive.

Now I knew that he’d just been avoiding me.

.

The next morning, I was staring out the window again. But this time, I was more than a little confused.

Bags were being thrown into the backs of pickups and some of the girls from the house were milling about outside. They were hugging eachother and packing themselves into different cars.

I turned around when there was a knock at the door. Everyone had pretty much left me alone in the week I’d been in the house, the only exception being when Cora brought me food.

The door swung open and a girl popped her head inside. My eyes widened when I realized that it was Faye. I stepped away from the window and towards her as she shut the door behind her. I enveloped the girl in a hug before I really even knew what I was doing.

I couldn’t help it. It kind of just sprung out of me…

Faye nodded at me and wrapped her arms around me, too.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered. “After they took you away that night, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

“Me neither,” I muttered. She pulled away to look up into my eyes.

“So… what’s going on?” I asked, gesturing towards the window to where she must have known I was spying.

Faye sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She nodded at me.

“Yeah… _that._ I guess I should explain.”

I nodded, my eyebrows furrowing. She sighed.

“The guy who owns all of this.. he uhmm… he kind of offered us all an out.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand–”

“Richard Knight,” she continued. “He’s kind of a big deal around this town, you know, being the club President and all…”

My eyes widened as I realized she was talking about Lucas’ dad.

“Yeah, he uhhh… he gave us all some money and offered to give us a fresh start in a different place. I’ve chosen California. I’ve always wanted to live by the beaches down there and I guess it’s as good as I can get seeing as it’s the other side of the damn country,” she laughed dejectedly.

I nodded.

“You could come with me?” she offered, raising an eyebrow at me. The offer pulled at my heart. I wanted to accept it and go with her. I wanted to put as much space between me and this town as I could… but, I couldn’t.

There were too many unanswered questions for me here that I would obsess over forever if I didn’t get to the end of them.

Plus, I couldn’t deny that a lot of the reason I wanted to stay was tied to one person in particular…

I didn’t need to say anything, though, because I think the other girl saw the indecision in my face. She sighed and pulled me into a hug but nodded in understanding into my shirt.

“I get it,” she said. “You’re already not from here and so I guess it’d be hard to move around again and get settled… just at least promise me something…”

I frowned but nodded.

“Don’t forget about me,” she said. “I mean, I know we didn’t spend _that much_ time together, but I guess it’s our tragedy that bonds us, right? I mean, I don’t have much family but this place is where I grew up. It’d be nice to know that someone here still remembers who I am…” she trailed off with a sad smile on her face.

I nodded. “Of course,” I managed to whisper. Faye gave me another sad smile before pulling me into one last hug. She gave me a tight squeeze before she let go and stepped back.

“Right, I’d better go before I start with the waterworks,” she chuckled. My lips quirked in a slight smile and I nodded. Then with a small wave, the girl turned and left the room, letting the door close softly behind her.

I moved back to the window and watched when she’d made it outside. She was right. We _were_ joined by our shared trauma. We always would be.

The things that we endured in that house would never leave us, I just hoped that those scars could possibly heal with time. I hoped she would be happy in California. I hoped she’d find somebody who would treat her properly.

I watched as she loaded herself into a truck and she stuck her head out the window to stare up at me. She blew me a kiss with a sad smile, to which I pretended to catch and hold close to my heart. I wiped a tear from my eye as I watched the car pull away from the house and begin to leave the estate.

I should have gone with her.

I knew that much as soon as the car disappeared from sight.

I had so many regrets, but there was still so much shit that I needed to address here.

I sighed, leaning against the windowpane. I so wished I’d gone with her. Maybe putting some space in between me and everything that happened here would do me some good.

Before I could dwell on any of that further, my eyes widened as I heard the door being pushed open again. I turned on my heel to stare at them as they stood in the doorway.

“Uhm… _Hi_ …”

.

**We’re almost finished now…**


	33. 25

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE**

**Lucas**

She was standing by the window. The light of the early morning sunshine was somewhat shrouding her features from me, but I didn’t care.

She hadn’t left with the other girls, and that was what mattered the most to me.

I knew that she probably had her share of questions for me, seeing as we hadn’t really spoken since she had been back at that house. I didn’t know what had really happened to me after all that.

I’d tracked down the asshole who bought them all and had beaten him within an inch of his life before I’d knocked him out and carted him off to the sheriff’s station. A couple of the guys had given me a hand with it and had taken heaps of photos of the house and the conditions and even found the receipts for having bought all the girls.

I thought he was incredibly stupid for leaving a paper trail, but it made putting him away only that much easier.

Then I’d sent Kickstand to help Lauren, because I hadn’t really trusted anyone else in that moment. He’d been the one to snap me out of beating up the asshole who had kept the girls and he’d been the one to convince me that I didn’t need to go for jail for killing the guy.

He had been the one to remind me that I had more important things to stick around for.

Or rather… a more important person.

And she was standing right in front of me.

Truthfully, I’d kind of been hiding from her. Which wasn’t easy considering the fact that she was staying in my room.

I’d ended up staying at the gym for the most part. I’d started taking refuge with Reggie, as I’d tried to comfort him. I’d had to be the one to break it to him that his kid was gone. I’d never seen Reggie lose it before, but the old man just seemed to fall apart.

I had tried to tell him that his son had gone out a hero, but it didn’t matter.

In the end, it was my fault that he was dead. Soraya and the kid, too. If I’d never gone to that house, Juice would never have been involved. Of course, that would have meant that those girls could have gone out in a much more horrific way, but that thought did not in the slightest ease the pain of losing one of my best friends.

I’d never get to talk to him again. Never get to hear him tell me that I was twisting or doing some other shit wrong. I’d never be able to fight him for real and prove that I was just as good as he was.

I was heartbroken over my friend.

It was my fucking fault.

Which was why I couldn’t understand why Lauren hadn’t left. She would have made a good life for herself elsewhere, and someone could have made her happy. Because after everything I’d done… I didn’t deserve her.

And she didn’t deserve me or this horrible life of mine. She was too good to have to be dragged down to hell with me.

It was the reason I hadn’t come to see her… aside from that small moment that we’d crossed paths last night. Actually, if it hadn’t been for that small sighting of her, I don’t know if I would have had the courage to make my way up here.

Because in the end, I was still addicted to her. You couldn’t just spend every day with someone for weeks on end and then suddenly take a break. She had become a staple in my life, and seeing her scurry up the stairs last night had been like putting a beer in front of a recovering alcoholic.

I had stood in the doorway of the den for a good fifteen minutes after seeing her move upstairs. I had been just frozen in place with indecision.

I had wanted to follow her as badly as I knew I should stay away.

The girl was better off without me, and I knew it. I had just hoped she would know it too, which was why I hadn’t come to see her.

When my father had recovered from his hospital visit, he’d come home and offered all the girls enough money to start fresh in any other place they had wanted. I had hoped that Lauren would go with them, for her own safety and my own peace of mind.

But she hadn’t. Which… I guess is why I finally came up here.

She hadn’t loaded herself into those cars like everyone else and I could stay away anymore. I needed to know why. I needed to know what was making her stay in this town that had only shown her a hellish life.

She had been abducted and sold and raped in this town. Why the hell would she want to stay here?

I frowned up at her, my hand finding the back of my neck as I scrubbed at it unsurely. My mouth had slipped open when I’d made it into the room. I mean, sure I’d only said ‘Hi’, but it was more than I’d spoken to her in a week.

And I was met with awkward silence.

She stared at me with a sort of undecipherable look on her face.

But she didn’t move from near the window. In fact… I think she may have even taken a step back, away from me.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

“He’s in jail,” I blurted out, not really knowing what else to say. Lauren rose her eyebrow at me in question and I frowned, biting my lip slightly. I turned and shut the door behind me, enclosing us inside my childhood bedroom.

“The guy who bought you… I put him in jail with a whole heap of evidence and stuff…” I trailed off. She still didn’t say anything, but I could see in her minute movements that she relaxed slightly at my words. She leant back on the window frame.

Then she slid down until she was sitting at the seat below the window.

She wasn’t looking at me anymore… Instead, there was a look of surprised relief and shock on her face. I could see her eyes covered with a glassy film and I wanted nothing more than to hold her and comfort her.

But I didn’t.

I was stuck. I didn’t know what she wanted.

I sighed. Then I looked right into her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said. Lauren looked up with teary eyes and stared at me, confused. I sighed, my hand scratching at the back of my neck again. I was embarrassed and feeling awkward around her in a way I’d never been awkward around girls before.

Then it spilled from my lips.

I apologized. And then I apologized again. And again.

I apologized for her position in that house and the way she’d been treated.

I apologized for the way I had acted in pressuring her to be with me in a way that I wanted and that I was greedy without really considering her.

I apologized for not trying to get her out of there sooner, and instead focusing on my enamor with her.

Then I apologized for things in the moment that were outside my control, but that I still felt sorry for.

I apologized for not being there for her when Soraya went into labor and then delivered her baby.

I apologized for not being able to save the girl or her child.

I apologized for her having to witness their deaths, and then Juice’s on top of that.

Then I apologized that she had to use that gun on Konstantin, and then that she had to watch me kill Gervasi.

And I apologized for leaving her and not coming back. “…Because in the end I thought you’d be better off without me and I wanted to give you space to realize that without me being so selfish,” I said. “And I will understand if the only reason that you’ve stayed around was to get answers out of me. I’m so sorry for everything that I’ve put you through and I will leave you alone to find a better life if that’s what you want…”

I looked up at the girl with wide eyes. I wanted her to see my soul through my eyes. I wanted her to really see that I was telling her my truth and I wanted her to understand that this was as much as I could give her.

Her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape, but she was still on the other side of the room. I sighed, waiting for her to say something.

If she could have read my thoughts, then she would have heard me begging her. But she stayed silent.

I gave her one last look of longing, before I nodded. She wasn’t ready. That much was obvious. And I had just dropped a bomb on her that was too big for her to handle.

I was a fucking idiot.

I grit my teeth, mentally slapping myself before I turned and grabbed the door handle. The best thing I could do right now was give her some space.

“ _Wait_ …”

I froze. The wind chimes were back. They were beckoning me. I took my hand off the doorknob and turned back around cautiously. Lauren was staring at me with wide eyes filled with fear.

I watched as she took small steps until she stood in front of me. She looked up at me through her lashes.

“That’s not what I want,” she whispered. My eyebrows furrowed and I parted my lips to question her but was shut up when her hands found mine.

She trailed her fingers lightly across my palms, her head downturned as she watched what she was doing. I watched her heave a sigh. Then she looked back up at me, squeezing my hands with her own.

It made my heart squeeze in a similar fashion.

I was exploding with electricity in every place that our skin met.

“I didn’t leave with the others because I didn’t _want_ to leave,” she said, her voice low and timid. “But, I also didn’t leave because I didn’t see the point if _you_ weren’t leaving with me…”

My eyes widened at her admission and she shook her head again, begging me to let her speak.

“Truth is that I need you here, Lucas,” she said. “I can’t think of another way to go about life after… well after all the shit that happened.” Her voice had faltered slightly when I knew she was referring to our friends. My heart throbbed at her words.

“Besides… there’s no one else in the world who cares about me,” she whispered. “At least… not as much as you’ve shown me that you have. That is… if you still do?”

I pulled my hands from hers and instead wound hers around my neck. Then my hands glided around her waist and I pulled her closer to me.

 _“Of course, I do,”_ I whispered, her lips inches from mine. “How could I not?”

Lauren seemed to whimper in my arms before she rushed herself forwards before I could register anything. Her lips were pressed against mine and I was kissing her back just as hard as she was kissing me.

I could taste her tears between our lips but I didn’t care. Nothing could pull me away from her right now, especially as her hands and fingers were buried in my hair and keeping me close to her.

I don’t know how long we stayed pressed together, but I pulled away when my lungs felt like I’d poured molten lava down my gullet. My eyes were closed and I pressed my forehead against hers, breathing heavily.

Lauren was crying quietly in my arms and she gripped me closer. My hands were the same, gripped at her waist in any way that I could have her. Her head then fell and pressed against my chest.

I pressed my lips to the top of her head, holding her close to me.

This was the most emotionally open that I’d ever been with anyone.

“I care about you more than you could possibly know,” I whispered into her hair. “And I don’t think I’ll ever stop…”

Lauren cried into my shirt. I moved my hand up from her waist and gripped her chin. She looked up at me through teary eyes and I looked at her sincerely.

I needed her to hear me right now. If she hadn’t heard anything I’d said before now, she needed to hear this. It was the most important part.

“Lauren, _I love you_ ,” I admitted. “And if you’ll let me, I want to spend the rest of my life trying to protect you and make you happy…”

I watched her close her eyes slowly, letting my words sink in. I had never said it to someone I wasn’t related to before.

I regretted not saying it to Juice, because I did love him, as a brother and as my best friend.

I knew that I hadn’t known Lauren long, but the things we’d been through together were things that close to no one in the world went through.

“I think I’d like that,” she whispered. “ _Because I think I love you, too_.”

I heaved a sigh of relief and happiness before I pulled her closer again. My lips mashed against hers with urgency as I wanted to get her closer and closer and closer to me. I wanted us to become one person.

When we pulled away, she looked up at me with eyes wide in shock. But there was happiness there. You couldn’t deny it.

“I think I need a new name, though,” she said.

I frowned. “Why?”

Lauren sighed, shrugging in my arms slightly. “I want to be a new person,” she admitted. “Lauren was a girl who was kidnapped and drugged and raped. I think if I’m going to start a new chapter in my life, then I need to do something like Faye and all those other girls. They’re building new lives for themselves and I think I need to, too.”

I nodded, slightly confused but understanding where she was coming from. “Okay…” I trailed off. “Well… did you have something in mind?”

Lauren nodded shyly, blushing as she looked up into my eyes. “It was my nickname that my parents gave me when I was younger and I always loved it. I was thinking I could be… _Luna._ ”

I considered it for a moment. The name was unusual. Unique. It definitely wasn’t a name you used if you wanted to blend in but something about it just seemed to work. It fit her perfectly.

“Luna,” I said, trying it out on my tongue. I smiled. I liked the way that it rolled. “My moon and my stars. _You’re my Luna…_ ” I said.

Her eyes were shining as she listened to me.

“I love it,” she whispered.

I sent her a full-blown smile. I loved it too. It suited her.

“Alright then, baby. If that’s what you want…”

She smiled up at me, pecking her lips against mine once. “It is.”

I smiled, nodding. “Then, I love it, too.”

Luna smiled up at me. If this is what she wanted, then I would give it to her. So much had been taken from her in such a small amount of time, how I could I deny her this? She was quickly becoming the center of my universe and I knew that she would soon have me wrapped around her finger… that was, if she didn’t already.

I loved this girl, without a shred of a doubt.

However, the circumstances we had made our way into each other’s lives, we were here to stay. That much was clear to me.

She would be mine. _Forever_. That thought made me happier than anything in the world ever had.

.

**A kind of happy ending? BRB gonna go cry…**


	34. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE**

**Five Years Later**

**Lucas**

The mood in the room was somber.

The four of us – Luna, Cora, Jax, and myself – were standing back in the hospital. Pres was on his last legs, and we had kind of all gathered in order to see him off. He kept saying he wanted to die on the road like Mom, and that the doctors couldn’t stop him from leaving, but the truth was that the man could barely take two steps without getting winded these days.

He’d contracted cancer of the lungs, throat, and gums from all of his smoking, and after all of his previous stints in the ward for his heart problems… well, let’s just say that the old guy was like a cat on his ninth life.

He didn’t have enough left in him to fight this.

Most of his cancers were nearing Stage 5. We had weeks, if not days.

I wrapped an arm around Luna and she leant into me. The past five years with her had been unimaginable. She’d helped me grow into the man that I needed to be.

After she’d agreed to stick around, I’d really started to pull my own weight. I’d bought her an apartment that she shared with Taylor – Juice’s cousin – because I knew it might be uncomfortable to stay in the clubhouse.

Plus, I knew that she had wanted something to call her own. She had needed a place where she could be herself and where she could grow into her personality. Besides, she and Taylor had become fast friends.

After Juice and Soraya and her son, Oscar’s funeral, Luna had been in dire need of a friend outside of my family. It had just seemed like stars were aligning, because the wake was held at the gym and Taylor and Luna just started chattering away, bonding over their loved ones who had passed.

After that, it had seemed like a no brainer.

That joint funeral had been moving as hell. I’d buried Juice with his favorite pair of boxing gloves. It was the least I could do. I had been an absolute mess that day. Luna had tried her best to comfort me but I think I had just needed that day for myself.

It was selfish, because I knew she had lost someone too. In fact, Juice, Soraya and her son – _their_ son – had been like a tiny little family. I had no doubts about that. Juice had cared about that girl and that kid too much to not consider them a part of his found family. And while I hadn’t been around Soraya long enough to know her, I could only hope that she had felt the same way about my friend.

And Luna had lost her. While she didn’t have the history with Soraya that I had with Juice, the girls were bonded by their trauma, which was something I would never be able to fully understand. The most I could do was empathize with her and her situation.

So, all in all, the day of their funeral had been hard on both of us. I – as ashamed as I was to admit this – had reverted back to my old self for the day. I had become distant and angry and moody. I couldn’t help it. It had just come over me like a wave, and I had tried to stay away from Luna that day because I hadn’t wanted her to see that side of me, but… to no avail.

I’d been hiding in an empty room when she’d come looking for me. And then she’d just embraced me with pursed lips because she just _knew_ everything that I was going through. And then we’d just held each other for a while because it turns out that that’s all either of us could handle.

I couldn’t think about any of that right now, though. Right now was about my Dad. Cora had made the trip from college when he’d been admitted again and that was about two weeks ago. She was supposed to graduate in about a month and couldn’t really afford to ignore her studies for right now, but some things are just more important than others.

She was staying with Roz, her friend from high-school, because she refused to stay in the clubhouse. I had no idea why, in fact I’d rolled my eyes when she’d told me but I let it go. She thought I didn’t know what was going on between them but I did.

I had practically resumed all of my father’s duties as Club President in the last eighteen months or so. Now I was just waiting for him to say the word and actually hand over the patch.

I looked down at him in the hospital bed, smiling sadly at him. He rolled his eyes at me and looked over at Luna, who was nestled into the crook of my arm. She smiled down at him and I saw a look in his eye that I hadn’t seen since Mom was around.

“You know, I’m so damn proud of you two,” he said, his voice scratchy. I looked down at Luna only to see her eyes were shining. While she had come out of her shell _immensely_ in the five years since she’d made it out, she still didn’t do well when she was nervous or cornered to speak as the center of attention.

I liked to think I knew how to read her, though. I liked to think that I knew how to comfort her.

I knew that one day I would marry this girl. I honestly didn’t know what I was waiting for, but I didn’t think she was ready for that just yet. With her… I had to take baby steps and I’d be damned if I didn’t. Luna was like a stunned deer who I didn’t want to spook.

I would take my time with her, and I was okay with that.

“I want you to know,” he said, looking up at me. “You’ve found something – someone – who means to you what Carter meant to me, and I’m so fucking happy for you.”

His words were interrupted by a fit of coughs and I felt Luna’s fingers grip at my cut, pulling me slightly closer to her.

“Thanks, Dad,” I said after he’d managed to get his breathing under control again. Then I pressed a kiss to Luna’s hair and squeezed her hip with my hand. I watched as Cora walked up to the side of the bed and took our father’s hand.

“I think there was something else you wanted to tell him, too?” she prompted, squeezing his hand.

I rose an eyebrow, looking at our father as he sent a knowing look to his daughter. Then I frowned when he moved slightly in the bed. He motioned for Jax to walk forward, which he did from the corner of the room where he’d been standing to give us space.

He handed my father a leather cut that I didn’t realize he’d been holding. Then he gave my father a switchblade. My eyes widened when I realized what was happening and I felt Luna squeeze me tighter because I think she had figured it out too.

I couldn’t count how many times I’d lain beside her in bed and told her about how badly I wanted this and how badly I had wanted to make my father proud of me. I couldn’t count the amount of times she’d kissed me and reassured me that it would all happen for me one day.

I hadn’t been able to imagine it, and I’d always wondered what was taking him so long because _I was ready_.

But now that it was happening… all my fears and my doubts were beginning to surface because _what if I’d just been kidding myself this entire time?_ What if I’d just been faking it and I actually wasn’t ready.

This shit was the big leagues. I couldn’t handle this.

I had thought I could but I couldn’t.

My father smiled up at me as he finally cut the stitches on his cut that pinned his ‘President’ patch to the leather. Then he picked it up and held it in his hands. His fingers fiddled with the small piece of embroidered fabric as he stared at me.

“I had the exact same look on my face when my brothers patched me into this position,” he said, his voice low. “And now… I’m the only one of them left. Who knows how many days are left on my calendar…”

“Dad…” I started, but he shook his head and held up a finger to cut me off.

“I’ve thought long and hard about how I wanted to do this,” he said. “I had wanted it to be in front of the club and I had planned to have a whole big party to fuckin’ celebrate,” he laughed. “But… Coraline said to me that it didn’t matter what I said or what I did or where I did it, just as long as I actually _did it._ She made me see that I wouldn’t be here much longer and that I’d rather hand this over myself than leave it to those idiots back at the clubhouse.”

I swallowed thickly. I couldn’t believe that this was happening.

“So,” he said, holding out the patch with a chuckle. “I think this is long overdue, and if you want the seat in Chapel, it’s yours.”

I didn’t take the patch. In the end, that’s not what this was about. I knew my father and I knew who he was as a person. He wouldn’t be doing this unless he believed with absolute certainty that he wouldn’t be around to do it tomorrow.

So I didn’t take the patch.

Instead I unwrapped my arm from my girlfriend and took a step forward to the bed. I wrapped my father up in the biggest embrace that I’d given him since I was a child. It took a moment of him being stunned into silence, but eventually he wrapped his arms around me too, squeezing me tightly.

Eventually, Coraline joined our group hug and was sniffling tears into my shoulder, and then I felt Luna join in on my other side. Even Jax joined us at one point.

Then we all pulled away and I wrapped my arm back around Luna. My Dad had pressed the patch into my hand during out hug and I held it tightly.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice slightly choked as I held his gaze. My father nodded once before turning to Luna.

“And thank _you_ ,” he said. Luna’s eyes widened as she realized he was fully addressing her.

“For what?” she asked. “I didn’t do anything…”

My father smiled. “Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong, dear. I’m so grateful for the man that you’ve made my son into. I’m incredibly indebted to you for looking after him in the way that you have, and sticking with him even after all the shit that you two went through.”

Luna blushed and moved from my grip to press a kiss to my father’s cheek.

“Thankyou for everything you’ve done for me, too,” she whispered. I watched my father’s hand come up and caress her hair affectionately before the two of them pulled away.

“And you better not let her go,” he said to me, his voice becoming stern. “You’re the Pres now, which means that people will look up to you, and you can make damn sure that I would not have handed over that patch if I didn’t think you could handle it with that woman by your side.”

I nodded, rolling my eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“I’m serious,” he said. “And you,” he turned to Coraline. “You had better make sure that you find someone to treat you right.”

Cora smiled at him and nodded. He turned back to me.

“You have to promise me that you won’t let her end up with some asswipe,” he said, looking at me pointedly. I rolled my eyes. I would never let that happen, besides, I already had something – or rather, _someone_ – in mind for my sister.

Because just that morning I had received a letter in the mail from a certain military base, detailing the schedule for the next three years of one specific soldier. He was scheduled to come back after that. I had already started setting my plan in motion as soon as I’d opened that letter.

Cue the devilish smile.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Pops,” I grinned. Then I squeezed Luna into my side again. While my father might not have been sticking around much longer, I convinced myself that he wasn’t leaving us with nothing.

I had a family in Cora and had found a better half of myself than I could have imagined, in Luna. I had a whole club at my fingertips, and two best friends in Jax and Gage that I knew would have my back in anything.

_How bad could life get?_ I mean, really…

.

**I’m BAWLING!**


End file.
